June 7, 2012.
It’s a date forever etched into Celtics fans' collective subconscious — causing the fanbase to wince with displeasure for close to a decade now.
It was an evening at TD Garden that was so decisive, so heartbreaking and so consequential to so many legacies that we don’t even need to offer up that box score or scribble together a few grafs to jostle your memory.
It’s a moment so iconic now in NBA lore that all it takes is a single photo to tell you everything you need to know.
Not only did LeBron James’ 45-point masterclass in a Game 6 blowout win at TD Garden rewrite his legacy en route to his first-ever NBA title, it also signaled the beginning of the end for a Celtics core that, against all odds, seemed primed for one last miraculous run.
The 2021-22 Celtics are cut from a different cloth in most respects. While the C’s squad that could only sit and watch as James carved their defensive structure to shreds was anchored by aging veterans such as Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, this current roster offers far more optimism for sustained, long-term success with franchise fixtures like 24-year-old Jayson Tatum and 25-year-old Jaylen Brown in place.
But young or old — perennial contenders or scrappy underdogs looking at their final kick at the can — the Celtics found themselves in a familiar, agonizing sequence of events on Friday night.
Close to a decade after a superstar performance from a Heat forward denied Boston its trip to the NBA Finals, Jimmy Butler twisted the knife once again in front of a stunned Garden crowd.
For all of the musings regarding James and that career-defining showing, Butler might have surpassed it during Miami’s 111-103 victory in Boston — ensuring a decisive Game 7 down in Miami on Sunday night.
Unlike June 7, 2012 — in which James’ 45-point, 15-rebound performance stood as a momentum-shifting stamp on a 19-point blowout, Miami needed every single one of Butler’s 47 points in a contest where Boston even managed to hold a three-point lead with just 4:43 left in regulation.
But following that Derrick White 3-pointer that put Boston on the cusp of another trip to the NBA’s championship round, the Heat outscored the C’s, 17-6 — with Butler accounting for six of those points in crunch time.
Add in nine rebounds, eight assists, four steals and 46 total minutes of action, and it was a signature performance from Butler and a Heat team that just about everyone had counted out in the days leading up to Friday’s showdown.
“I don't like to compare teams. I get it. People can easily draw the comparisons between the two,” Erik Spoelstra said of Butler and James’ Game 6 performances. “It's a different era. It's a different team.
"I want our guys just to embrace this moment. Jimmy Butler is a great competitor; he really is. You can mis-define him in a lot of different ways, but his competitive will, is as high as anybody that has played this game. He put his fingerprints on this game.”
In typical Butler fashion, he dismissed the notion of any outside noise impacting his mindset going into Game 6 during his postgame interview with ESPN — a stretch, to say the least, given Butler’s ability to recall just about every slight that’s been tossed his way over his career.
But even if Butler wasn’t going to address Draymond Green and just about every basketball personality with a microphone already setting the stage for a Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals, the rest of Miami’s roster wasn’t going to let it slide.
“It's funny. We laughed,” P.J. Tucker said of Green’s comments. “I thought it was funny because he knows better than anybody we still got to play the game. Got to play. There's no guarantees of anybody winning in this league on a night-in and night-out basis.
"These games have been crazy. They've been unpredictable all series, being at each other's homes. We're both great home teams. It's just been crazy.”
Ultimately, Butler would get the last laugh on Friday, with his 47 points standing as the second-most points in a playoff win for a player facing elimination on the road — behind just Wilt Chamberlain’s 50-point performance against Boston way back in 1960.
Of course, when you let a three-point lead so late into a contest devolve into an eight-point loss, there’s plenty of blame to go around.
The Celtics will be kicking themselves that they didn’t go for the jugular in a game that was there for the taking. Tatum ultimately took just one shot in the fourth quarter. Brown’s two missed free throws in crunch time were a back-breaker.
Green’s comments did them no favors. You can point fingers to the refs if you’d like.
But, maybe, just maybe, Jimmy Butler is just that dude. And on nights like tonight, you can only shrug your shoulders and accept when greatness graces your court — even when it's doled out by a player in a different jersey.
We’ve seen it before, that’s for sure.
“Jimmy does not stop,” Spoelstra said. “I thought his last game, yeah, missed a lot of shots, but our competitive will was there. We just got outplayed. Sometimes that happens. But if you're a real competitor, you just keep on going.
"All of us are just thrilled we have an opportunity for Game 7.”