Ticked: Sports Day Events Recap Clip, May 21 (Sports5)
Is the Eastern Conference Finals also on the way to a sweep? The way Boston looked tonight (Sunday through Monday), it certainly looks that way. After two away wins, Miami defeated the Celtics 102-128 at home in Game 0 of the series to take a crushing 3-3 lead from which it's hard to see the Celtics coming back. As you know, no team in the NBA has ever come back from falling behind 0-0 in the playoffs, Miami is 8-29 in series where it led by such an advantage, but beyond the dry result in the series, it seems that the Celtics have already been completely broken tonight, while Miami is just gaining bitschon and getting a wide contribution from all the players.
Tonight it was Gabe Vincent who stood out with 22 points and enjoyed a career high, Duncan Robinson scored 8 for No. 18 in the East, Caleb Martin scored 16, Jimmy Butler finished with 13, Bam Adebayo scored 10 and Max Strus also finished with a double-double as he contributed <> of his own.
Miami Heat player Gabe Vincent scores over Boston (Photo by Getty Images, Megan Briggs)
Where are you, sir? Tatum (Photo by Getty Images, Megan Briggs)
On the other hand, Jayson Tatum finished with just 14 points, Jaylen Brown added 12 for the Celtics, who last year won three times in Miami en route to victory in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this year look simply broken, and by the final quarter the game had been played by the replacements, deep off the bench. Tonight, the dismantled Celtics finished the game 11-of-42 from three (26 percent), while Miami enjoyed easy shots that finished 19-of-35 from three (54 percent) and 46-of-81 from the field, 57 percent.
Game 4 will take place on Tuesday night in Miami, when the Heat can finish with a crushing 0-4, which at the moment seems natural but before the playoffs began would have been seen as a sensation. Miami barely made the playoffs, then came close to elimination in the play-in — yet managed to beat strong opponents like championship contender Milwaukee in five games, then the Knicks in six, and now the Heat are one game away from knocking out top-ranked Boston in a sweep.
By the way, the first game of the NBA Finals is scheduled for June 1, so at least for now it looks like there's going to be a pretty long break without games, given that Denver is also leading the Lakers 0-3 in the Western Conference Finals and can complete a 0-4 win tonight. Never before in NBA history have two regional Finals series ended in a sweep.
Bye-bye. Butler (Photo by Getty Images, Megan Briggs)
Miami dominated the game from the start, leading by 8 at the end of the first quarter, and going into the break with a 15-point lead, leading 46-61. Marcus Smart shrank to 12 and gave hope, but from there Miami went on a 7-28 run to open a 33-point gap, 56-89, with the home crowd going wild with joy and the 20,088 spectators realizing the story was over. And just as Al Horford defiantly signaled to Miami's bench to take a timeout during Game 1, when Boston opened up a confident lead, Butler was there tonight to get revenge and signal to the Celtics' bench to call a timeout and signal finally: The story is finished.
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