Tag: east finals

Previewing Boston Celtics-Miami Heat Game 6, Eastern Conference Finals

Can the Boston Celtics force a Game 7 with a win over the Miami Heat in Game 6 of their East Finals series? Tonight, we find out.

Once again, the Boston Celtics find themselves in a win-or-go-home moment as they face the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Trailing the Heat three games to two, the Celtics will need to win not only tonight, but on Tuesday as well to advance to face the Los Angeles Lakers, who just eliminated the Denver Nuggets Saturday evening to advance to the 2020 NBA Finals.

For now however, the focus is just on Game 6, as they can’t afford to get caught daydreaming about what might lie ahead lest they become one of the 27 other teams no longer playing this season in the process.

Little has changed in terms of likely adjustments; Boston has seemed to have become much more comfortable busting Miami’s preferred mode of bigs-up-front 2-3 zone, and has found ways to minimize center Bam Adebayo’s lob threat inside.

So long as the team’s perimeter and transition defense remains crisp and connected, the tools have been assembled for the job.

The question is whether the Celtics can maintain the laser focus needed to defeat such a disciplined opponent; all of Boston’s losses are arguably a result of them not doing so.

Injuries are largely the same, with only rookie wing Romeo Langford (wrist) out for Boston and the Heat returning the same players healthy as in Game 5.

We like this team’s chances so long as they play together the right way, and predict a solid win at 112-101.

Most online sportsbooks concur, floating the Celtics a -3 spread for the game.

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How to watch or stream Miami Heat-Boston Celtics East Finals Game 6

These are all of the ways you can watch or stream Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals series between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics.

Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, September 27th as the Celtics try to keep moving closer to an NBA Finals berth.

To do it, they’ll need to win two more games against a determined, disciplined Heat roster that’s mercifully begun to show signs of weakness after a torrid start.

Will Boston have enough left in the tank on Sunday to force a Game 7? We’ll soon find out — and if you happen to need a way to watch, we’ve got some suggestions.

Local Celtics fans can watch the Game on NBC Boston Sports if their cable provider carries the channel, and their “MyTeams” app and website are available for those of us who would prefer to stream the contest.

ESPN will broadcast the game nationally for those of us with cable packages carrying that stalwart, and several paid options are also available.

If money is no object, there’s NBA League Pass, NBA TV, FuboTV, Hulu + and YouTube TV can get the game in front of your eye holes, and those of us with schedule conflicts can always catch the video highlights posted after the game.

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Boston’s bigs buoy Game 5 with Kanter and Theis making critical plays

Boston’s big men were a low-key reason why the Celtics lived to fight another day in their Game 5 win against the Miami Heat in the East Finals.

A not-small part of the Boston Celtics huge win against the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the East Finals on Friday came about from the elevated play of the team’s big men, especially Enes Kanter and Daniel Theis.

The pair played their best respective games in some time at precisely the right moment, helping keep the Celtics’ NBA Finals aspirations on the table.

The Turkish big man’s energy went a long way towards keeping Boston afloat in a lackluster first half that looked like it might be the penultimate of the season.

Instead, the outspoken center spoke out on the glass, using his hands to make a statement on the offensive boards, throwing up a quick four points when the Celtics seemed poised for a collapse.

“That just kind of kept us at bay — we were struggling,” offered head coach Brad Stevens of Kanter’s first half boost.

“They hit some really tough shots; [Duncan] Robinson was going nuts. Kanter’s points there in the paint I thought really helped,” he observed, “and then helped steady us and give us a chance at halftime only being down seven.”

While Kanter’s stat line of 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists may not be eye-popping, it came in just 10 minute of floortime, and was exactly the shot in the arm an energetic but unfocused Celtics offense needed.

Theis had one of his best nights of the postseason to date as well, putting up 15 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks.

“I thought he was pretty good all night,” offered Stevens on the German big man.

“He started the game with good energy and defensively. I thought that he was one of our bright spots early but then I thought [in] the second half he was excellent. We need him to provide what he provides and it’s great in the middle of the zone. He caught it twice and scored, and he was great there on the glass on both ends. We need him to be good.”

We got a lot out of that center position tonight,” he added. “That’s important.”

“Those guys were big-time,” offered Tatum on the pair. “They played with a lot of effort and heart — especially Enes.”

“He’s been in this league a long time, [and] he’s in a unique situation where he never knows if he’s going to play, but he’s always ready to give us that boost, that spark. Especially rebounding and people moving the ball in the low post.”

And he’s a professional — he’s always ready,” he added.

At a moment of great need, they showed up and did their job regardless of the glory in it.

And while Boston’s high-octane wings may justly get the lion’s share of attention in the win, it’s undeniable that this season would have ended had Theis and Kanter not come to play in the moments where it mattered most.

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WATCH: Jaylen Brown’s full Game 5 Miami Heat-Boston Celtics highlights

Watch this video for all of Boston Celtics star forward Jaylen Brown’s best plays against the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the 2020 NBA East Finals.

Jaylen Brown had no small part in keeping the Boston Celtics’ NBA Finals hopes alive with a big 121 – 108 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.

With his high-level offensive play in this must-win game — including a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter — the Cal-Berkeley product was instrumental in securing the win.

Scoring 28 points on 12-of-23 shooting (including 4-of-10 from beyond the arc) to go with his 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in 39 minutes of play, Brown was the team’s second-highest scorer behind fellow wing Jayson Tatum, and the more efficient of the pair.

The team now survives to fight again in their Game 6 matchup with the Heat this Sunday, tip-off coming at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

If you need something to keep you busy until that game rolls around, or you just wanted to relive the glory that was Brown going off in a potential elimination game, watch the video above for all of the Georgian’s best plays from Game 5 of the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals.

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Brown: Celts ‘looked like the team that we all know and love’ in Game 5

For Jaylen Brown, defensive intensity and aggressive attack of the Miami Heat’s zone defense were key elements of the Boston Celtics Game 5 win.

Boston Celtics star forward Jaylen Brown believes his team was playing with the right intentions to start their Game 5 win over the Miami Heat on Friday, but were trying too hard, as if to make up for past lapses that were responsible for their 3-1 deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals series coming into the tilt.

“We just knew on the first half that we were playing with a lot of energy, but it was kind of all over the place and we just had to dial it in,” he explained.

“We had the right mindset from the beginning of the game, but it was a little bit all over the place. Once we settled down a little bit, kept that same intensity, it worked out for us,” Brown added.

The team had good luck in their early misfortunes, which sounds contradictory, except the Celtics should have been down much more than the seven-point hole they carried into the break.

“We were playing a little bit fast, a little bit antsy,” noted Brown

“We were trying to win the game in the first half, and we just needed to stay with it, keep making the right play, and just settle down a little bit,” he added. “When we did, shots started going in, our defensive intensity was was good.”

“We gave up less baskets in third quarter, and looked like the team that we all know and love.”

Doing so likely saved Boston’s season from the brink of disaster; for a while there, things were looking bleak.

One positive that can be taken is that the Celtics are looking increasingly comfortable with the Heat’s defense of choice, a 2-3 zone with the big men out front.

Asked how important it was to get into the middle of Miami’s zone as they had been throughout this game, Brown replied, “Super important.”

“I think that’s the key — being aggressive and Miami’s really good at making it seem like it’s not open. They have a lot of guys who have length; [Jae] Crowder, [Jimmy] Butler, even [Devin] Robinson has length, so we’ve just got to do it anyway.”

“Play hard and play with intensity, and trust that we can cover for our mistakes if we if we play hard enough,” he added.

On Sunday, they’ve earned another chance to do exactly that.

Tip-off is at 7:30 Eastern Time.

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WATCH: Jayson Tatum’s full Game 5 Miami Heat-Boston Celtics highlights

Watch this video to see all of Boston Celtics All-NBA swingman Jayson Tatum’s best plays against the Miami Heat in their Game 5 win of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Boston Celtics All-NBA Small forward Jayson Tatum helped power his team to a critical 121 – 108 Game 5 win over the Miami Heat in their Eastern Conference Finals series with that team, Miami being up three games to one ahead of the must-win contest.

The Duke product had an excellent game in the victory, scoring 31 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal to help secure the win in 43 minutes of playing time.

It wasn’t his most efficient night at 8-of-22 overall and 3-of-10 from beyond the arc, though he did hit 12-of-14 from the Charity stripe.

“It’s not going to be perfect,” Tatum said. “You just want to give yourself a chance.”

It was enough on this night, the Celtics surviving to fight another day, Game 6 slated to take place Sunday evening.

If you want some Celtics basketball to watch between now and then, or just want to see how Tatum balled out on Friday night, watch the video embedded above.

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Stevens: ‘We care about each other and that’s why you compete’

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens shared some thoughts on why the team responded in the second half of Game 5 against the Miami Heat.

In the second half of Game 5 against the Miami Heat in the East Finals, the Boston Celtics looked like an entirely different team than showed up not just in the first half of the game, but truthfully, the whole series.

Good defense, good communication, dialed-in offense — all the signs of a team that has designs on staying alive.

Not so in the series’ previous nine halves — what changed?

“I thought we played with great tenacity defensively, and our offence followed suit, but they’re very hard,” opined head coach Brad Stevens after the game. “It’s easy for me to sit up here and say to ‘be at our very best’ and ‘get stops on every possession’. This is a heck of an offensive team, a heck of a well coached team and hard to guard.”

In fairness, it’s important to give the Heat their due. For all the eyeroll action built into the branding of “Heat culture,” it’s not simply a media fabrication.

The Celtics are facing by far their most disciplined opponent of the postseason, and what they lack in recognized talent, they make up for in intangibles.

It’s not just Miami who is obsessive about their preparation and execution, though; in fact, Stevens cites this very nature as a reason why Boston responded with its back against the wall.

“We’re prideful; we want to do well,” he explained.

“The four teams that are here are really good; they’ve had great years. They’re also in the arena and on the stage where everybody’s going to be talking about them, and try to dissect them and break them down and all that stuff. So, our deal was to come out play, come out [and] compete, give it our best shot. And I thought we played pretty well in the second half, but we’re going to have to do it again and again, because of the position we’re in, but we don’t get caught up in all that other crap.”

“We’re trying to be our best, we care about competing ,we care about representing our team or organization,” he added. “We care about each other and that’s why you compete.”

Chemistry has been the bond that’s powered this Celtics team through the most chaotic season in league history to wrest a successful season from anticipated mediocrity.

And there’s no reason to think that it should stop any time soon so long as this group continues playing with each other in the way they have all season.

They still need to win Game 6 on Sunday to survive for a Game 7 showdown with a trip to the 2020 NBA Finals as the prize, but it wouldn’t even be the first 3-1 comeback of this postseason (or its second).

And we all know what Kevin Garnett has to say about what can happen when you’re deep in the postseason, playing together.

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WATCH: Miami Heat-Boston Celtics 121-108 full Game 5 highlights

The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat 121-108 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals to force a Game 6 on Sunday.

The Boston Celtics survived to fight another day as they defeated the Miami Heat 121 – 108 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals behind big games from the Celtics young wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Tatum led all scorers with 31 points, 10 boards, 6 assists and a steal including going 12-of-14 from the line, while Brown put up 28 points, 8 rebounds and a steal on 12-of-23 shooting, including 4-of-10 from beyond the arc.

Center Daniel Theis and point guard Kemba Walker added 15 each, the German big with 13 boards and 3 blocks, and the UConn product 7 assists and a steal.

Veteran guard Smart contributed 12 points, 8 rebounds, as many assists and 4 steals, while forward Gordon Hayward led the bench with 10 points and a block.

The Celtics survived to fight another day with their clutch win over the Heat in a potential elimination contest, with Game 6 scheduled for Sunday at 7:30 pm. Until then, watch the video embedded above to see all of the Celtics’ best plays from their Game 5 win.

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Celtics survive as Brown and Tatum power Boston to 121-108 win

The Boston Celtics kept their NBA Finals hopes alive with a 121-108 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Boston Celtics needed a win to advance to the next game of their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat, never mind the next round.

Early on, it looked like the Heat were going to go for the jugular, nailing a trey to get on the board and jumping out to 5-0 lead. Boston shook off its rust, and quickly evened things up, however.

Miami charged back with a 12-point run of their own before Kemba Walker hit a trey to stop the bleeding. A trip to the line for the UConn product and a 3 from Jaylen Brown cut the lead to just four points.

A four-point run by the Heat kept Miami in front, and a trey from Duncan Robinson pushed the lead back to nine. Having shot just 5-of-25 from the field, it was mostly luck they were only down 26-18 to finish the first quarter.

The Celtics went on the attack to start the second quarter, Jayson Tatum scoring for the first time just seconds into the frame. The Heat responded with a five-point run broken up by a tip-in from Daniel Theis.

Enes Kanter went on a four-point, one-man run of his own but Miami charged back to retake a ten-point lead on a Goran Dragic jumper. Bam Adebayo would add to it to put the Heat up 40-28.

The teams took turns trading makes until Brown came alive, hitting a 3 and flushing the rock on back-to-back plays, cutting the lead to seven. A foul by Walker on Butler was unsuccessfully challenged by the Celtics, but Walker answered back with a 3 on the next play.

The Heat threatened to blow the lead open with two quick makes, but a 3 from Tatum slowed the attack. Gordon Hayward would cut the lead to five, but Miami kept the pressure on, going into the break up 58-51.

The penultimate frame began with an Adebayo jumper, with Brown answering back soon after. Boston tore off a 9-2 run to tie it up at 60 with eight left in the frame, forcing a Miami timeout.

A Brown make and a trip to the line for Tatum gave the Celtics their first lead of the game. The Georgia native kept the pressure on, building an ten-point lead behind buckets by Walker, Brown and Theis.

The Heat struggled to stay in the game as Tatum started to get hot, Boston building a 89-78 lead on a trip by the Duke product to the line. A Tyler Herro trey late in the frame sent the Celtics into the fourth quarter up 92-83.

Boston began the fourth giving up a bank shot to Herro, but a tech on Andre Iguodala after he committed a personal foul helped Boston push the lead back up to ten. The Celtics and Miami traded blows, Miami cutting it to eight on an Iguodala layup.

Back-to-back Brown treys immediately pushed it to 14, and a Hayward make with 6:30 to play set the score at 107-91 Celtics. A Crowder and-1 helped slow the leak, and a Butler trip to the line cut the lead to 14.

Brown and Tatum kept attacking, the St. Louis native pushing the lead to 19 on a Tatum 3-point play with 3:30 to play. Robinson would cut into the lead with a 3-point play of his own, and a Herro 3 threatened to make a game of it. Boston wouldn’t relent, and came away with a 121-108 win.

The Boston Celtics needed a win to advance to the next game of their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat.

And they got it.

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Stevens: Celts must ‘play every possession like it’s the last possession’

The Boston Celtics have to play each possession as if it were their last according to coach Brad Stevens — and if they don’t down 3-1, it very well could be.

How should the Boston Celtics be treating Game 5 of their East Finals series against the Miami Heat, in which they now trail 3-1 in the best-of-seven series?

“You want to play every possession like it’s the last possession of the game,” suggested Celtics head coach Brad Stevens at the team’s pregame presser when asked if the team should be playing with an air of desperation.

“You want to play with great focus on hitting singles on those possessions and at the same time, missing a shot at the early part of the game isn’t going to make or break the game, so you also have to play competently. You also have to play assertively and aggressive.”

“You can’t play timid, and so I think that there’s a fine line,” he added.

Whether Boston was playing timid, tired, or just terrible in Game 4, if it happens again, it will be the end of their season. But as he typically does, Stevens instead focused on the positive side of the coin.

“Our thing this whole entire experience has been competing with great intentions, and and do your best to stay in the moment and play as well as we can,” he explained.

“We’ve had really good moments, playing all the way up to this point, including in this series. We haven’t had enough of them when it’s mattered most, and I think that that’s where we have to be even more locked in and taking advantage of every possession.”

Do the Celtics have what it takes to force a Game 6?

We’ll soon find out, with tip-off slated for 8:30 pm Eastern Time.

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