Jayson Tatum finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds as the Boston Celtics booked their spot in the NBA Eastern Conference finals with a 92-87 Game 7 win on Friday over defending league champions the Toronto Raptors.
Jaylen Brown scored 21 points, while Marcus Smart added 16 points and Kemba Walker 14 for the Celtics, who won the series 4-3 and advanced to their third Eastern Conference finals in the past four seasons.
“If you want to achieve something great, if you want to win, it’s not going to be easy,” Tatum said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
Photo: AFP
Boston next faces the Miami Heat, with Game 1 of the best-of-seven series scheduled for Tuesday in the NBA’s quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida.
Fred VanVleet had 20 points to lead the Raptors, whose title defense came to a close after battling back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the series.
“We didn’t play great in this series,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said. “There is no denying that, but in pretty much everything else we did this season, we were awesome.”
Kyle Lowry had 16 points before fouling out in the final minute, while Pascal Siakam scored 13 points with 11 rebounds as the Raptors turned the ball over 18 times, including a half-dozen times in the fourth quarter.
VanVleet missed a potential game-tying three-pointer for the Raptors with 12 seconds left by putting up an air ball and sealing the win for the Celtics, Walker made two free throws at the other end.
In the Western Conference, Jamal Murray sparked a rally in the fourth quarter and rookie Michael Porter made several clutch plays down the stretch as the Denver Nuggets stayed alive with a 111-105 upset of the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Nuggets turned up the heat on the Clippers in the fourth quarter to cut Los Angeles’ lead in the semi-final series to 3-2.
Canada’s Murray scored a team-high 26 points, while Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, and Paul Millsap tallied 17 points for the Nuggets, who were also down 3-1 in the previous series before storming back to win three straight against the Utah Jazz.
Murray was able to bust loose in Game 5 after being contained for much of the series by a rotating trio of Clippers defenders: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley.
“We play the best when our backs are against the wall,” Murray said. “It is as simple as that. We came up fighting. They had a good start, but we had to fight back.”
Porter made a series of key plays late in the game, including a three-pointer from 8m out with 71 seconds remaining to give the Nuggets a five-point lead, 105-100.
Porter, 22, also had a clutch block on Ivica Zubac 35 seconds later and drained four free throws in the final 21 seconds.
Leonard scored a game-high 36 points, while George finished with 26 for the second-seeded Clippers, who are trying to advance to their first Western Conference final.
Leonard has scored at least 30 points in seven playoff games. He is averaging almost 30 points per game in the post-season, but he did not get much help from the Clippers bench in Game 5.
Murray rebounded nicely on Friday, making five-of-seven baskets from beyond the arc after shooting six-of-15 baskets in Game 4.
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