BOSTON, May 17 ------ Al Horford wanted to savor the moment. With play stopped and the Celtics’ victory no longer in doubt, Horford turned in the direction of the sideline, walked a few paces, stopped and extended his hands overhead, bringing an already raucous TD Garden crowd to its feet in applause. Jayson Tatum had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Boston beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-98 to advance to the NBA Eastern Conference finals for the third straight season.
Horford added 22 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and six of Boston’s 19 3-pointers to help the Celtics post their third consecutive win and wrap up the series in five games. “We had a great opportunity at home to handle this, and I knew it was going to take a lot more than handling it normally.” said Horford, who joined LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players 37 years or older to record a 20-point, 15-rebound, five-assist playoff game in NBA history. “It’s special. It’s something that’s hard to do. … This is another positive step of where we want to get to.”
The Celtics will now await the winner of the matchup between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. New York leads that series 3-2. This will be Jaylen Brown’s sixth conference finals appearance and the fifth for Tatum. Tatum said it’s proof that the team culture is strong. “It just shows the character of the team, the organization. People might think it’s a given we’re supposed to be here,” Tatum said. “We’re all in this together. We’re doing something right.
The Cavaliers played extremely short-handed without All-Star Donovan Mitchell (calf), center Jarrett Allen (rib) and key reserve Caris LeVert (knee). Cleveland stayed close through the first three quarters and pulled within 88-85 early in the fourth. Boston then went on a 13-2 run to take a 101-87 lead with 6:44 to play. Evan Mobley scored a playoff career-high 33 points and had seven rebounds. Marcus Morris Sr. had five 3-pointers and finished with 25 points. “I was proud of their effort,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “This has been a difficult year for us, for a bunch of different reasons. They never found the time to fold on each other. All they did was find ways to compete.” Cleveland now enters a summer of uncertainty with the futures of Mitchell and Bickerstaff squarely in the spotlight.
In Oklhoma, Luka Doncic stopped worrying about calls and just played. It worked. He scored 31 points in a triple-double, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-92 to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Western Conference semifinal series. “I’m just trying to play basketball, just focus on basketball,” he said. “Sometimes I forget this is the thing I love, the thing I do. My mental focus was just go out there and play basketball with a smile on my face and just go.”
Derrick Jones Jr. scored a playoff career-high 19 points and P.J. Washington Jr. added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Dallas, which shot 52.6% from the floor. The No. 5-seeded Mavericks can advance to the Western Conference finals with a win Saturday at home. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points for the top-seeded Thunder, but no other Oklahoma City player scored more than 13.
Source: inquirer.net
Editor's Note:
Here are the current standing of Semi Finals NBA Playoffs:
Eastern Conference:
Boston Celtics - 4 Cleveland Cavaliers - 1
New York Knicks - 3 Indiana Pacers - 2
Western Conference:
Oklahoma Thunder - 2 Dallas Mavericks - 3
Minnesota Timberwolves - 2 Denver Nuggets - 3
Comments