Archives for May 2023

MIAMI – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – After losing the first three games of the Eastern Conference finals, the Boston Celtics didn’t look like a team ready to flash some dominance.

But after winning the past two games by an average of 15 points, the Celtics are very much alive. They will seek to tie the best-of-seven series at three victories apiece with the Heat on Saturday when the teams play Game 6 in Miami.

No NBA team has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series but Boston is now halfway there after staving off elimination for the third and fourth times this postseason. The Celtics also recorded two such wins against the Philadelphia 76ers in the conference semifinals.

“Our back has been against the wall,” Boston standout Jaylen Brown said after Thursday’s 110-97 home win. “Obviously, we didn’t imagine being in this position, being down 3-0, but when adversity hits, you get to see like what a team is really made of. I mean, it couldn’t get no worse than being down 3-0, but we didn’t look around, we didn’t go in separate directions. We stayed together. We doubled down on what we’re good at on defense, and now I think it’s a series.”

The Celtics never trailed and led by as many as 24 points in Thursday’s game. Two nights earlier, they led by as many as 18 during a 116-99 road win.

The stellar play comes after Boston appeared ready to start the offseason after it was whipped 128-102 in Game 3.

“Game 3, that was as low as you can be,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said. “The good part about being that low is you only can play better. It’s only up from there.

“It kind of gave us a sense of just like everybody is counting us out. We’re supposed to win. We’re supposed to be done, and I think we started to play a little bit more free and relaxed.”

Suddenly, the pressure is on the Heat.

The thought of possibly playing a Game 7 in Boston in a winner-take-all affair isn’t appealing.

And that makes Saturday’s contest feel like a must-win for both teams.

Yet Miami star Jimmy Butler is downplaying his team’s recent issues.

“We’ve just got to play better,” Butler said. “… We are always going to stay positive, knowing that we can and we will win this series. We’ll just have to close it out at home.”

Butler scored a series-low 14 points and has failed to reach 20 in two of the past three games.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra befuddled Joe Mazzulla over the first three games but it was the first-year Celtics coach pushing all the right buttons over the past two games.

“One game doesn’t lead to the next game,” Spoelstra said. “It just doesn’t matter. It’s about collectively preparing and putting together a great game. We’ll play much better on Saturday. That’s all we just have to focus on right now.”

Mazzulla didn’t have any profound explanation for the turnaround.

“It just says that our backs are against the wall and we’re sticking together and we’re competing at a high level to give ourselves a chance,” Mazzulla said.

Heat center Bam Adebayo made it clear that his club’s confidence remains high.

“When we started this journey, nobody believed in us,” Adebayo said. “Everybody thought we were going to be out in the first round. Everybody thought we were going to be out in the second round. And now we are here one game away.”

Boston had four 20-point scorers in Game 5. Derrick White made six 3-pointers and led the way with 24 points, Marcus Smart scored 23 and Tatum and Brown each scored 21.

Duncan Robinson led Miami with 18 points.

Heat guard Gabe Vincent (ankle) missed Game 5 and his status for Saturday hasn’t yet been firmed up.

–Field Level Media

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Derrick White scored 24 points as the host Boston Celtics staved off elimination for the second consecutive contest with a 110-97 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat never lead in the game, but they still hold a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series as they head home for Game 6 on Saturday.

White made 8 of 11 shots — including 6 of 8 from 3-point range — and Boston’s Marcus Smart sank 7 of 12 and 4 of 6, respectively, to highlight his 23-point performance. Smart also had five steals for the second-seeded Celtics.

Jayson Tatum collected 21 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in the victory, and teammate Jaylen Brown scored 21 points while shooting 3-for-5 from 3-point range. Brown entered Thursday having made just 3 of 25 shots from beyond the arc in the series.

The Celtics shot a robust 50.6 percent from the floor (40 of 79) and 41 percent from 3-point range (16 of 39). Those percentages came on the heels of Boston making 51.2 percent of its shots from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc in a 116-99 victory in Game 4 on Tuesday.

Miami’s Duncan Robinson made 7 of 10 shots to score 18 points off the bench. Bam Adebayo collected 16 points and eight rebounds, Haywood Highsmith added 15 points and Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin each had 14 for the eighth-seeded Heat.

Kyle Lowry scored just five points and committed four of his team’s 16 turnovers while starting in place of the injured Gabe Vincent (sprained left ankle).

Boston bolted out of the blocks by scoring 14 unanswered points to seize a 20-5 lead. Tatum highlighted his 12-point first quarter with an emphatic dunk that gave the Celtics a 28-13 lead, and White finished with 11 points in the period after draining a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – TD Garden has not exactly been the comfy confines but it will have to do for the crucial and pivotol Game 5.

Members of the Boston Celtics were talking about a return trip to South Florida mere moments after the team averted a sweep at the hands of the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

While talk is cheap, the conversation will become real if the Celtics fend off elimination for the second consecutive contest on Thursday when they host the Heat in Game 5 at the Boston Garden.

“We want to come back to Miami,” Jaylen Brown said after the second-seeded Celtics avoided the brooms with a 116-99 victory in Game 4 on Tuesday. They still trail 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to the eighth-seeded Heat.

Jayson Tatum scored 25 of his 33 points in the second half Tuesday, with 14 coming during a third quarter in which Boston outscored Miami by a 38-23 margin. All told, Tatum made 11 of 15 shots from the floor after intermission.

Tatum wasn’t alone, either. The Celtics shot 51.2 percent from the floor (43 of 84) for the game and 40 percent from 3-point range (18 of 45).

“Yeah, everybody was in good spirits, everybody was upbeat, and as cliche as it sounds, we just tried to take it one game at a time,” Tatum said. “We didn’t play well the first three games, we didn’t deserve to win, but we didn’t want that to define us, define the season.

“We’ve still got a long uphill battle to go. But (Tuesday) was a good start. Just to try to carry this momentum toward Thursday.”

TD Garden hasn’t been kind to the home tenants in the postseason, however. The Celtics have lost five of their past seven games in Boston.

That said, the Heat had won all six of their home playoff games before Tuesday’s tumble in Miami.

The Heat were denied in their first opportunity to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons. They also were thwarted in their first chance to join the 1998-99 New York Knicks as the lone eighth-seeded teams in the league to advance to the NBA Finals.

Jimmy Butler, who recorded team highs in points (29) and rebounds (nine) on Tuesday, refused to get too down after seeing the team’s initial opportunities go by the boards.

“The only thing I’m going to say is we’ll be OK,” Butler said. “Let’s get back to doing what we’ve always done to get us to this point. Continually have belief in one another, knowing that we are going to win, and we will. We’ve just got to play harder.

“There’s not too much to say with this group because we already know. So we’ve just got to go out there and execute.”

Caleb Martin made his first six shots from the floor on Tuesday and scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” Martin said of the loss. “That would have been a perfect world, perfect situation. But as we know and everybody else knows, we don’t typically get things the easy way over here. So like I said, this is right up our alley. This is the way it goes for us and guys like us. Again, I think it’s only going to prepare us for the long run. This could be good for us.”

–Field Level Media

MIAMI – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Jayson Tatum collected 33 points and 11 rebounds as the visiting Celtics staved off elimination with a 116-99 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Tatum made 14 of 22 shots from the floor — including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. He also had seven assists for the second-seeded Celtics, who trail 3-1 in the best-of-seven series heading into Thursday’s Game 5 in Boston.

Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown scored 17 points and guard Derrick White added 16 to help the Celtics prevent Miami from becoming the second eighth-seeded team to advance to the NBA Finals. The 1998-99 New York Knicks accomplished the feat during a lockout-shortened season.

Grant Williams scored 14 points off the bench and Al Horford added 12 points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who turned the tide by outscoring the Heat 38-23 in the third quarter. Williams had jawed with Heat guard Jimmy Butler in Game 3.

Boston shot 51.2 percent from the floor (43 of 84) for the game and 40.9 percent from 3-point range (18 of 44).

Miami’s Butler overcame a slow start to record 29 points and nine rebounds. Gabe Vincent scored 17 points and Caleb Martin added 16 off the bench for the Heat, who fell to 6-1 at home in the playoffs.

Down by 11 points late in the third quarter, Miami trimmed the deficit to five before Boston countered by scoring 12 straight points to secure a 100-83 lead with 7:25 to play in the fourth. Tatum and Marcus Smart each had five points during that surge.

The Heat moved within 13 with 4:27 to play before Brown converted a three-point play to halt the momentum. The Celtics were not seriously threatened the rest of the way.