Jayson Tatum scored 26 factors, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Good every added 24 and the Boston Celtics held off a frantic rally within the ultimate seconds to beat the Miami Warmth 100-96 on Sunday evening and attain the NBA finals for the primary time since 2010.
Al Horford added 14 rebounds for the Celtics, who by no means trailed on the best way to pulling off a Recreation 7 win on the highway – and never together with the bubble, that was the primary such victory for the storied franchise since beating Milwaukee for the 1974 NBA title.
Subsequent up for Boston: the Golden State Warriors in a sequence that begins Thursday in San Francisco.
Jimmy Butler, who willed Miami into Recreation 7 by scoring 47 factors on Friday in Boston, led the Warmth with 35 factors in what grew to become their season finale. Bam Adebayo added 25 for the Warmth, who have been down 11 with beneath three minutes to go earlier than making an attempt one final rally.
An 9-0 run, capped by a three-pointer from Max Strus with 51 seconds left, acquired the Warmth inside 98-96. That they had an opportunity for the lead with about 17 seconds to go when Butler tried a three-pointer from the best wing, but it surely missed – and the Celtics escaped.
Boston pressured the Warmth into 9 consecutive misses throughout a vital stretch of the fourth quarter, utilizing that run to show an 82-79 lead right into a 90-79 edge – and the Celtics, who had misplaced every of their final 4 journeys to the East finals, discovered a option to maintain on.
Kyle Lowry scored 15 for the Warmth. Grant Williams completed with 11 for the Celtics.
