\n<\/p>\n
After the miracle<\/a> and the madness<\/a>, Gabe Vincent broke the silence inside the Miami Heat locker room on Saturday night by humming along to \u201cLife Goes On,\u201d a ballad by Ed Sheeran featuring Luke Combs.<\/p>\n Most of Vincent\u2019s teammates were long gone by then, bound for their Miami-area homes as they faced the collective challenge of figuring out how to rebound from a soul-crushing loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But back in the locker room, where an oversize image of the N.B.A.\u2019s Larry O\u2019Brien championship trophy is stitched into the carpet and a series of murals depicting the franchise\u2019s past triumphs line a tunnel leading to the court, the atmosphere was gloomy. The lyrics of a song about heartbreak hardly helped. They seeped from Vincent\u2019s iPhone all tinny and hollow, as if the music were being piped through a radiator:<\/p>\n It hit like a train, I ran out of words;<\/em> \u201cGreat song,\u201d Vincent said.<\/p>\n Nothing about this season has been easy for the Heat, and Vincent hinted that perhaps some poetic justice was at work after the Celtics\u2019 104-103 victory in Game 6, tying the series at three games apiece. Derrick White\u2019s astonishing putback at the buzzer \u2014 the ball left his fingertips with about one-tenth of a second to spare<\/a> \u2014 had extended the best-of-seven series and the Celtics\u2019 season, forcing a Game 7 in Boston on Monday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Heat could not have been closer to securing a spot in the N.B.A. finals against the Denver Nuggets. And then, in an instant, that dream somehow felt very far away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like it\u2019s supposed to be this way,\u201d Vincent said. \u201cBut, you know, go to Boston and get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
I got nothing to say, everything hurts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n