The Boston Celtics have extinguished the Heat. The Miami Heat team, to be exact.
A year ago, Miami embarrassed Boston in a Game 7 showdown at TD Garden. This time, the Celtics returned the favor.
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White were the stars of the game, each scoring an impressive 25 points, leading the Celtics to a decisive victory over the short-handed Heat with a score of 118-84 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
“We talked about throwing the first punch,” White said. “We did that most of the whole series.”
White hit five 3-pointers. The top-seeded Celtics never trailed and led by 37 points.
Boston will face the winner of the Cleveland-Orlando series.
Boston exploited a Heat team that was the most injured in the series. Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat out after suffering a hip injury in Game 4. He was replaced in the lineup by Delon Wright, marking the 37th starting five the Heat used this season. Jaquez joined Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck), who had been sidelined since the start of the series.
Bam Adebayo scored 23 points, and Tyler Herro had 15 for Miami, which made its first exit from the playoffs before the conference finals since 2021. The Heat struggled throughout, going 3 of 29 from 3-point range.
“We have gained a lot of mental toughness,” Adebayo said. “Going through ups and downs, guys being out, learning how to win with different lineups, going through that, I learned as a captain the ship is going to get rocky at times.”
In the four wins in this series, the Celtics trailed for a total of 56 seconds. Three of their wins were wire-to-wire, including this one.
Boston played for the first time this postseason without center Kristaps Porzingis, who strained his right calf in the Celtics’ Game 4 victory. The Celtics managed well, and their lead reached 30 points in the first half.
Photo/EricaDenhoff/AlotofSportsTalk
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