With an overwhelming Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics crushed the Miami Heat 102-82 on Monday night to level the NBA Eastern Conference final at two wins apiece. Tatum, 24 years old and three times ‘All-Star’, signed a great game with 31 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, supported by the Dominican Al Horford, who stood out under the boards with 13 rebounds.
For the Heat, the only one who made the cut was veteran substitute Victor Oladipo with 23 points, four rebounds and six assists.
Game five of this best-of-seven series will be played on Wednesday in Miami. The winner of this matchup will face the winner of the Western Conference final in the NBA Finals, a series that the Golden State Warriors lead by a resounding 3-0 against the Dallas Mavericks.
Boston came out aggressive with a first quarter for history as they won it 29-11, and finally went into the break with a wide difference of 24 points (57-33). A difference that grew to 30 points at the beginning of the third quarter when the Celtics crowned a 10-4 run (67-37), which ended with a basket from distance by Tatum.
The Celtics controlled the defense in the paint early on, holding star players Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry to just six and three points, respectively. The Boston quintet, which left Kevin Durant’s Nets and Giannis Antetokoumpo’s defending Bucks on the way, also widely dominated the tables by beating the Miami team in the rebounding section 60-39. Miami missed 15 of its first 16 shots.
Payton Pritchard had 14 points for the Celtics. Derrick White added 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Robert Williams finished with 12 points and nine sacks.
Miami’s five starters were tightly controlled with fairly lackluster performances by Butler (six points), Lowry (three points), P.J. Tucker (no points), Max Strus (no points) and Bam Adebayo (nine points). They all left the game in the fourth quarter.
And all this despite the Celtics taking the court without Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, who has a sprained right ankle suffered in the second half of Game 3.
For their part, the Heat were without Tyler Herro, who suffered a groin injury late in Game 3 of the series. Butler was in the starting lineup after missing the second half of Game 3 with right knee inflammation.
Meanwhile, Lowry (sprained left hamstring), Strus (sprained left hamstring) and Tucker (sprained left knee) tested for injuries before the game and were ultimately cleared to play.
