By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
After two close wins on the road, Miami Heat crushed Boston Celtics at home in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals 128-102.
Gabe Vincent had a career night, leading the winning side with 29 points. He had more points than Jayson Tatum (14) and Jaylen Brown (12) combined, which speaks volumes about how Game 3 went.
“It’s the first to four games,” Vincent said. “We’re not satisfied with three.”
Duncan Robinson with 22 and Caleb Martin with 18 points followed the Nigerian guard, and the fun fact is that the top three scorers of the Heat were undrafted, which shows a lot about the Heat culture.
“That was a solid, mature, professional approach,” said coach Eric Spoelstra, now on the brink of a sixth trip to the NBA Finals as Miami’s coach. “There’s a lot of pent-up stuff here, and we’re getting closer, but we still have to finish this off.”
Miami’s playoff hero, Jimmy Butler, followed the trio with 16 points and eight boards, Bam Adebayo added 13, and Max Struss 10 points. Nikola Jovic and Omer Yurtseven got minutes in the final quarter, scoring two points apiece.
As for Boston, Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams scored 12 points each, while Luke Kornet added 11.
“I don’t even know where to start,” Boston’s Brown said. “It’s an obvious letdown. I feel like we let our fan base and organization down. We let ourselves down. And it was collective. We can point fingers, but in reality, it was just embarrassing.”
At the start of the second half, Boston got within 61-49, and then Miami turned up the Heat, went on a 28-7 run, and put the game to bed after three quarters with a 93-63 lead before the last break. Be mindful that the Heat started the series as the 8th seed in the East and Boston as the second.
Denver Nuggets are also leading 3-0 in the Western Conference Finals against Los Angeles Lakers, and both series could end as soon as Tuesday, with the Finals starting on June 1.
There’s never been a season where both conference finals ended in sweeps; it happened in 1957 in the division finals, when Boston beat Syracuse 3-0, and St. Louis beat Minneapolis 3-0.