NBA analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley slams inconsistent Boston Celtics after Miami Heat win

NBA analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley didn’t hold back when discussing the Boston Celtics’ poor play during their loss to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

“This is the problem with the Celtics,” Barkley said at the beginning of his statement. “This is one of the most inconsistent, talented teams I’ve ever been on.”

“You have two guys who are All-NBA, you have defensive player of the year. You have the sixth man.

And in the last month, since the playoffs started, you say what the hell happened against Atlanta, what the hell happened against the Sixers, and then you come over here and you three-zip with the top two games at home.

“Then you play two great games, then you play three great quarters and then you try to coach Game 6 away… I’m not shocked that Miami won the game, I’m shocked that they won by 20.”

Boston was blown out and defeated by nearly 20 points by the Miami Heat in Game 7

Jimmy Butler won NBA Eastern Conference Finals MVP after winning Game 7 against the Celtics

Barkley alluded to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the Celtics’ All-NBA players — the former hurt his ankle during the first game against Miami on Monday night — while Marcus Smart won defensive player of the year.

Against the Hawks, there was a shatter from the Celtics after they surged to a 2-0 lead before winning the series 4-2. Against the 76ers, they trailed 3-2 and needed two wins in Game 6 and 7 to advance.

But as Barkley alluded to, this time the Celtics were blown away by the Heat 103-84 in Game 7.

In the game itself, Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds to help the Heat avoid being on the wrong side of history.

The Heat bounced back from a 3–0 series lead to advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons.

They will face the Western Conference champion Nuggets, with Game 1 in Denver on Thursday night.

Bam Adebayo scored 12 points with 10 rebounds for Miami, the first No. 8 to play for a championship since the New York Knicks in 1999.

The top-seeded Denver is already waiting for the victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on May 22.

Butler recorded 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the Game 7 win against Boston

Bam Adebayo (13) was one of two Miami players to have a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebs

Caleb Martin was the other, with 26 points and ten rebounds while shooting from the field 11-16

Game 6 hero Derrick White scored 18 for Boston, which hoped to become the first ever NBA team to advance after trailing 0-3 in a best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown scored 19 with eight rebounds, but went 1 for 9 from 3-point range.

Tatum, who scored a Game 7-record 51 points against Philadelphia in the conference semifinals, had 14 points with 11 rebounds after spraining his ankle on the first play of the game and limping for 42 minutes.

The Celtics led by five points early on before giving up a 14–4 run to close out the first quarter and then give up 16 of the first 22 points in the second.

Boston trimmed the deficit to seven runs late in the third inning, but Miami took a 76–66 lead at the break and scored the first seven runs of the fourth quarter to pull away.

The Heat won its first three games—two of them in Boston—and needed just one more win to reach the NBA Finals. None of the 150 teams that have opened up a 3-0 lead in an NBA playoff series have ever failed to go through.