Game 7 of NBA Finals should have Celtics fans reliving the good (and the bad)

For the first time since 2016, the NBA Finals will be decided in a Game 7. Thursday's blowout set the stage for one final meeting between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night for all the marbles.

Game 7s are awesome if you're on the outside looking in. They're even awesome, at least in the preceding days, if your team was down 3-2 heading into Game 6. Once the ball is thrown up for the opening tip, it's 48 minutes of anxiety-filled hoops if you've got skin in the game.

What makes it so scary is that literally anything can happen. Typically, the NBA Playoffs are rather predictable, with each series being seven games. The best team wins almost every time.

In Game 7s, the randomness of basketball is much more of a factor.

How can I take the most exciting moment of the NBA season and make it about MY favorite team?

Boston Celtics fans should be very familiar with the emotions flowing through the souls of Thunder and Pacers fans. Over the past 10 seasons, no franchise has appeared in more Game 7s than the Celtics have. Boston holds a 6-2 record in their eight winner-take-all matchups since 2015.

The Celtic faithful, thankfully, have mostly fond memories of these games. Of course, the two losses (2018 Eastern Conference Finals vs. Cleveland and 2023 Eastern Conference Finals vs. Miami) still sting. Most fans remember those games for Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown shooting a combined 3-22 from three, and Jayson Tatum rolling his ankle within a minute of the opening tip, respectively.

Moments like these, as much as they may suck, are what make Game 7s great. The randomness leaves a lasting legacy. Role players can turn into heroes, and stars can become legends with strong performances.

Kelly Olynyk, Grant Williams, and Tatum have all etched their names in Celtics history with tremendous outings with the season on the line.

Olynyk's Game 7 performance against the Washington Wizards in the 2017 Eastern Conference Semifinals (almost) justified Boston drafting him over Giannis Antetokounmpo four years earlier.

The Canadian big man exploded for 26 points on an efficient 10-of-14 from the field to send the Cs to their first Conference Finals in five years. He got going inside the paint early, and his finishes became more impressive as the game went on. He took Wizards players off the drive, scored on cuts, and drilled a pair of triples too.

There were even stretches in the fourth quarter where Boston ran the offense through him in the post.

Though it was one of his final games in green, Olynyk will be remembered fondly by Celtics fans forever.

Five years later, another Celtics role player stepped up big time with a trip to the Conference Finals in the balance. Williams' 27-point clinic against the Milwaukee Bucks reminded many of Olynyk's heroics at the time. Looking back, the situations were quite different.

Olynyk inserted himself into the fold, while Williams was dared to step up by Milwaukee's then-Head Coach Mike Budenholzer. The Bucks committed to leaving the Celtics forward wide open from beyond the arc, and he made them pay.

Williams sank seven threes to down the reigning champs and cement himself as a Game 7 legend. Rewatching the highlights is pretty funny because, as the game goes on, you can tell he's growing more confident. His last triple of the afternoon comes in transition, and he stops at the three-point line, waits as a buzz emits from the Garden crowd like he's Ray Allen, and then buries the shot.

There wasn't nearly as much time between Williams' big day and the next great do-or-die performance. Celtics fans only had to wait a year before seeing Tatum set a new NBA record for the highest-scoring Game 7, when he poured in 51 points to (once again) down the Philadelphia 76ers.

What made the day even more impressive was that JT wasn't all that efficient in the previous five games in that series. He still put up respectable stats at 22.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per outing, but only shot 37.9% from the field and 26.2% from deep.

He picked the perfect time to break out of the slump.

It was an emptying of the entire bag for the Celtics star.

JT was dialed in from the opening tip. He made a point of relentlessly attacking the rim to get himself going early on. By halftime, he had already put in 25 points to give Boston the lead, dominating with dunks, layups, and crafty finishes.

After the break, he turned it up a notch. Tatum went scorched earth in the third quarter, hanging another 17 on the 76ers. This time, he got his buckets from long range, drilling four triples to blow the game wide open.

JT put some finishing touches on the historic performance in the fourth, and Boston beat Philly just like they always do.