The NBA playoffs continued tonight with two games in the East and in one of them, the one held in Boston, a great drama was recorded when the host defeated Brooklyn with the buzzer. Earlier in Florida, Miami defeated Atlanta without too much difficulty.
No one wanted to meet Brooklyn in the playoffs, but Boston, which could have avoided it, lost on the last game night of the regular season and arranged for itself a more comfortable series against Chicago, did not do so and reached the series against Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and their friends. After 48 minutes of basketball it has to be said – for basketball fans, it was worth it.
The Celtics went up to 0-1 in the series after a great simple game, a great drama at the end and a basket of victory with the buzzer, all this despite a great performance by Kyrie who finished with 39 points on 60% from the field and 60% for three, alongside 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 kidnappings. Against Jason Taitum and Jaylen Brown, that was not enough.
Taitum celebrates (Reuters)Boston was the one that led for long minutes in the first three quarters, though the Nets knew how to come back each time and the advantage passed from side to side no less than 20 times throughout the game. In the middle of the third quarter, the Greens managed to gain a record advantage of 15 points and in the last quarter they fell by 11 points, 85:96. How did Brooklyn react? With a 2:17 run in four and a half minutes, it was led by Kyrie with 10 points, and suddenly the Nets led 98: 102. Three minutes before the end, the Celtics returned to a 107: 107 tie and the teams remained close until a minute before the end, the scoreboard showed 111: 111.
Then came the big drama. Kyrie’s huge three gave Boston a 111: 114 lead, Brown responded with a quick basket, Brooklyn went on a super-important offense at the end of which Durant missed and the ball went into the hands of the Boston players, for a final offense, without a timeout. Right at the last minute Marcus Smart sent a message to Taitum, who penetrated the basket and scored with 0.0 round on the clock and gave the signal for the fans’ celebration in green.
Taitum hits the basket of victory (Reuters)
… and ran to celebrate with the guys (Reuters)Taitum led the Celtics with 31 points and handed out 8 assists, Brown contributed 23 points and Smart and Al Horford (who also dropped 15 rebounds) scored 20 points each for the winner. For the loser, with the exception of Kyrie, only Durant stood out with 23 points, but with a bad percentage.
Atlanta’s good end to the season and the two playoff wins that secured her a playoff ticket gave Nate McMillan’s team a lot of hope for the series in the first round of the playoffs against Miami. So tonight (Sunday) the series started and the Heat showed the Hawks that they are really not Charlotte or Cleveland, with a crushing 91: 115 and 0: 1 in the series.
Jimmy Butler celebrates in front of the Hawks (Reuters)While Miami is a whole team, where every night a different player can rise, Atlanta is a team of one player – Trey Young. And on a terrible night like the one he went through in Florida, with just 8 points (a negative playoff record) in a shocking 1 of 12 from the field and 0 of 7 off the arc, the Hawks had no chance.
For Miami whoever came up was, quite surprisingly, Duncan Robinson, who scored 27 points from the bench, including 8 of an incredible 9 from outside the arc. Miami led just 17:23 at the end of the first quarter, but then the Heat’s substitute slinger led his team to 36 points in the second quarter, scoring 11 of them, against just 23 of the visitors from Georgia, and at halftime the gap was 19 points.
Trey Young does not get along with the hit (Reuters)By the end of the game the gap had not dropped below 16 and the Heat’s victory was not at risk at any stage, and Atlanta will try to surprise in the second game, which will also be held in Miami. Except for Robinson, the winners were Jimmy Butler with 21 points and PJ Tucker with 16. Atlanta was led by Danilo Gallineri with 17 points.