Is the biggest upheaval in NBA history taking shape? Boston beat Miami 97-110 Thursday night in Game 5 to trim the Eastern Conference Finals series to 3-2.
No team to date has come back from falling behind 3-0 in an NBA playoff series, and the Celtics still need to win the next two games to do so, but the way it looks tonight, nothing is finished.
Gabe Vincent, one of Miami's top performers, was absent from the Heat's roster and that gave Boston another push forward. The first quarter ended with a 15-point lead, by the break the Celtics were down by 17, and by the peak it was 24, and Erik Spoelstra's team had no answers.
Boston's night included 16 threes on 41 percent shooting, with Derek White and Marcus Smart (10 threes combined) shooting more from beyond the arc than Miami as a whole (9).
White finished leading the way with 24 points, Smart with 23, Jayson Tatum added 21 and 11 assists, and Jaylen Brown also had 21 points. On the other side, Duncan Robinson led Miami's scorers with 18 points, Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo scored 15 each, and Jimmy Balter and Caleb Martin contributed 14.
Jaylen Brown in a frenzy, photo: AFP
Marcus Smart shoots from outside the arc. The story of Boston's game, Photo: AP
The hottest sports articles and updates on your Telegram
Join
Jayson Tatum and Jimmy Butler. Battle of Giants, Photo by Getty Images
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/FRK22JBN42AGD7F4PH3ECFBVY4.jpg)
