Miami 101, Boston 88

[recap] [box score]

What do you say after your team lays it all on the line in the biggest game of the season, only to come up short? Nothing, it turns out. Instead, you go down to your local Boston bar to have a beer among sympathetic friends and fellow fans.

And what do you say after more than one of those beers and a sack full of fast food? Nothing, it turns out. Instead, you go to sleep, if you can.

And what do you say the morning after? Not much, it turns out.

I owe these Celtics a long post for the glorious, unexpected playoff run they just took us on. I don't seem to have it in me at the moment, though.

I'm disappointed. I wonder what might have happened had Doc switched Brandon Bass off of LeBron James in the fourth quarter. I wonder what might have happened had we made a couple open looks in the second half and Chris Bosh hadn't made three three-pointers and James hadn't thrown in that 30-footer. I wonder what might have happened had Avery Bradley, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce had been healthy.

But then I remember what James did to the Celtics in Game 6 with Pierce on him. I remember that young legs tend to make more shots than older ones, especially as the season nears its end. I remember that had Bosh been healthy for the whole series, there might not have been a Game 7. Hell, if Derrick Rose were healthy, there probably wouldn't have been a Game 1.

I'm disappointed, even though I shouldn't be. Unlike 2010, it doesn't feel like we gave anything away. What's difficult is that an upset of the Heat would have been so satisfying that it was hard not to fall in love with the idea of it. And so, with that result seemingly in reach just a couple of days ago -- or even just a few hours ago -- it's disappointing that we couldn't achieve it.

But I would never ask for more than the effort.