Celtics one win away to the NBA Finals after winning Game 5
Updated: May 31, 2022
Celtics run past the Heat 93-80 at FTX Arena to take a 3-2 lead and inch closer to the finals.
A combined total of 47 points (Jaylen Brown’s 25 points and Jayson Tatum’s 22 points) granted Celtics with the win.
Miami Heat was led by Bam Adebayo’s double-double, 18 points and 10 rebounds but was not enough to mount a comeback. Miami also missed Tyler Herro who is suffering a groin injury.
Boston shot 46.5% compared to Miami’s 31.9% from the court. Offensively, Miami had thirteen more offensive rebounds to Celtics only six. However, defensively, Celtics had 40 rebounds, 10 more than Miami’s. They [Celtics] also shared the ball to open shooters racking up 24 assists compared to Miami’s 14.
It was a slow start to both teams in the first quarter as the scores ended 19-17 in favour of the Heat. The Heat had four steals in the quarter making their presence felt on loose balls and poor handling by the Celtics. The Heat led at half time 42-37. Boston shot 25% from the arc through the two quarters compared to Celtics 19%. Celtics had 10 turn overs in the first half which was nearly same as they did in Game 4 with 11 turn overs.
Udoka’s men couldn’t allow to be scorched by the Heat any longer as they flipped the scores and outscored Miami 32-16 in the third quarter. The first half was clumsy for Brown as he had 4 of the 10 turnovers Celtics made. But he responded well in the second half, scoring 6 points in the third quarter. Brown upped the tempo for Celtics as he shot three of four threes in the last 12 minutes of the game and made five of six shots too.
The Heat run was poor as they missed their first nine shots in the second half. Jimmy Butler opened their scoring later on. Celtics opened the fourth with a 14-2 run with Brown pulling the strings. With 5:19 left, the lead was 18 for Celtics and the countdown was on. The Celtics won the fourth quarter 24-22 shooting 47.4%.
It was quite an ugly game but Celtics will not care as they were victorious at the end, 93-80.
“Just breathe, relax,” Brown said, when asked about closing out Miami. “Sometimes we can be a little too tense because we know how important these moments are. But just come out and play our game and we’ll be fine.”
At the end of the game, Spoelstra also had this to say ”If you want to break through and punch a ticket to the finals, you are going to have to do some ridiculously tough stuff.”