Inside The Heat

Can Miami Heat Find Motivation Like Jaylen Brown Did After Last Year's Eastern Conference Finals Loss?

Shandel Richardson|
Jun 12, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts during the fourth quarter during game three of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 12, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts during the fourth quarter during game three of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports | Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics traded motivation the previous two seasons.

Maybe next season it's once again the Heat's turn. On Thursday, Celtics guard Jaylen Brown told reporters that he was motivated last offseason by their loss to the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

The eighth-seeded Heat built a 3-0 lead before winning Game 7 at Boston. Brown felt he let his teammates down after Jayson Tatum was injured in the final game.


"On your home floor, it definitely hurt," Brown said at Thursday's media availability. "It was embarrassing in my opinion. "I felt like the team was relying on me when JT got hurt in Game 7. I dropped the ball. To me, it was embarrassing. It drove me crazy all summer."

In 2022, the Heat were in the same situation. They were the top seed but lost to the Celtics in seven games on their home court. The talk all that offseason was how the Heat were motivated by the loss.

So the Heat have the opportunity to keep the theme going next season. They should have plenty pent up frustration after how things finished a few months ago. They stumbled into the postseason for a second straight year before losing Jimmy Butler to injury in the Play-In Tournament.

It wasn't supposed to end that way for a Heat team that was supposed to contend again in the East but maybe this redemption trend continues.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Inside The Heat. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here