Cavs Fans Unleash ‘We Want Boston’ Chants Amid Game 7 Vs. Magic
The Boston Celtics taught the Miami Heat a valuable lesson in the first round of the NBA playoffs, mocking their entire fanbase while yawning across the finish line and advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We want Boston!” Miami fans chanted as the Heat destroyed the Chicago Bulls in their play-in matchup. Bold, foolish, and overly ambitious for a team that barely snuck into the postseason and was held to under 90 points for three consecutive games en route to elimination.
That, of course, didn’t age well for the Jimmy Butler-less Heat.
“We want Boston!” were the final words Miami heard from the Boston crowd at TD Garden before the Heat were sent packing in Game 5 — right after a collective singing of Steams’ “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” to pour salt on Miami’s wound.
Lesson learned, right?
Well, the Cleveland Cavaliers faithful sent a bold, copy-and-paste message to the Celtics during their Game 7 victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday: They want next.
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“We want Boston!” Cavaliers fans screamed at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse after watching Donovan Mitchell carry Cleveland to a second-round date with the Celtics.
“They traded for me for more than just winning a first-round series,” Mitchell told reporters, per Hayden Grove of Cleveland.com.
Mitchell averaged 28.7 points to lead the Cavaliers throughout the seven-game battle with Orlando. Although since Cleveland failed to close out the series in six games after leading the Magic, 3-2, the team gifted Boston an extra two days of rest before traveling to TD Garden to begin Round 2 of postseason play on Tuesday (at 7 p.m. ET).
Boston went 2-1 versus Cleveland in the regular season, and all matchups resulted in single-digit victories.
The last time the Celtics and Cavaliers crossed paths in the postseason was in the 2018 conference finals. At the time, Jayson Tatum was a rookie, LeBron James was still in Cleveland and Boston’s limping roster — missing Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward — took Cleveland to seven games, falling short of an NBA Finals appearance.