After 12 years, Boston did it: the Celtics won the Eastern Conference championship and advanced to the NBA Finals with a dramatic 96: 100 in Game 7 of the Miami Hall. After snatching 47 points from Jimmy Butler and losing at home in Game 6, the Celtics came up very decisive for the decisive game and achieved the long-awaited victory thanks mainly to three players: Jaylen Brown, Jason Taitum and Marcus Smart who together scored 74 points out of 100 of Their team and arranged for the Celtics to make 22 appearances in the NBA Finals, the most except the Lakers who have done so 32 times. Boston will face in the grand finale the Golden State of Steph Kerry and Clay Thompson, the lineage of Steve Kerr who qualified for the finals Friday in eight years, with the first game in the series starting on Thursday night.
The opening of this game belonged entirely to Boston, which exploded with 17:32 already in the first quarter and already led by 17 points. But Miami really did not give up and came back in the second quarter where Jimmy Butler, Bam Adbaio and Kyle Laurie offset the lag to just 55:49. The close game was maintained in the third quarter and the real drama came in the final quarter. Adbaio and Butler opened the quarter with two baskets and shrank to just 82:79. But instead of Miami continuing the momentum, it missed all of its next eight shots and Boston took advantage of that for a 0-8 run and once again climbed to a double-digit 79-90 advantage with a Smart basket. Oladipo interrupted the run, but Taitum sniped a huge three and set up 81:93 with 5:37 minutes left in the game.
Taitum, Brown and Smart did another mini-run to set up a 85:98 record and a record advantage in that quarter, but 3:20 minutes into the game Miami mustered all of its experience and a Strauss three completed an incredible 0:11 run that brought Miami closer to 98: Only 96 with 50 seconds left in the game. Smart missed on the other hand and Jimmy Butler got a chance to record an incredible turnaround, but missed a three-pointer and Smart closed out an interest on the other side with two free throws and inflicted on Eric Spolstra his first career loss in Game 7.
Boston, which in previous times has been in the playoffs and encountered LeBron James, is finally returning to the finals where it will meet the great Golden State of Steph Kerry and Clay Thompson for a fascinating series. Taitum, frustrated in the previous game, led Boston with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and also 2 blocks. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart added 24 each, with the latter also adding 9 rebounds and 5 assists. On the other hand, Jimmy Butler gave another play with 35 points and 9 rebounds (13 of 24 from the field), but as mentioned missed three Critical.Im Adbaio added 25 and 11 rebounds and Kyle Laurie contributed 15 hits, who worked all regular season to achieve home runs throughout the playoffs, but actually stumbled in their hall.