Wayne Lumbasi
The Boston Celtics punched their ticket to the NBA Finals Sunday night with a 100-96 road win over the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Celtics, who eliminated 2021 NBA champion Milwaukee in a seventh game earlier this month, held off the Heat down the stretch to advance after losing the conference finals three times in the past five seasons.
Jayson Tatum led the way for the winning side with 26 points, while Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart scored 24 apiece. Grant Williams was the only other Celtic to reach double figures with 11 points of his own.
With Miami’s loss, the No. 1 seed in the East has failed to reach the Finals in every season since 2017, when Cleveland made it. Butler was incredible for the Heat, following up the game of his life from Game 6 with something close. Playing all 48 minutes, he shot 13-of-24, was 8-of-11 from the foul line, and grabbed nine rebounds.
Despite Butler’s brilliance, he squandered an opportunity to pull off a miraculous late-game comeback by falling short on a transition 3-pointer that would have given Miami the lead with 16 seconds remaining. He finished just 1-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Boston Celtics swingman Jayson Tatum was named the inaugural Larry Bird award winner as the MVP of the NBA Eastern Conference finals at the conclusion of the series Sunday. Tatum’s consistency throughout the series set him apart. Night after night, he delivered in key moments, especially late in Game 7 as he hit several big jumpers and made strong defensive plays against Heat star Jimmy Butler.
The Celtics will now take on the Golden State Warriors, who just beat the Dallas Mavs in a five-game “gentleman’s sweep” Friday night following a 120-110 win at Chase Center in San Francisco.
The Celtics reached the NBA Finals for the first time since losing the 2010 title to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics haven’t won the NBA crown since 2008. The Warriors, in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years, seek their fourth title in that span and the first since 2018
The last and only time the Celtics went up against the Warriors in the finals was the 1963-1964 season, when the Golden State Warriors were the San Francisco Warriors. That series saw two NBA superstars face off, as it was the first time legends Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain met in the NBA Finals.
