Dallas and Boston win Game 7s in style
Luka, Mavs demolish Suns by 33 points • Celtics clobber Giannis, Bucks to oust defending champs
Luka Doncic recorded 35 points and 10 rebounds and the Dallas Mavericks dismantled the host Phoenix Suns with a convincing 123-90 victory in Game 7 to claim a spot in the Western Conference finals.
Spencer Dinwiddie poured in 30 points off the bench and Jalen Brunson added 24 as fourth-seeded Dallas steamrolled the top-seeded Suns. The Mavericks led by as many as 46 points while reaching the finals in the West for the first time since winning the 2011 NBA Finals.
Dallas will face the third-seeded Golden State Warriors in the conference finals. Game 1 is Wednesday night in San Francisco.
“I don’t know what to say but this was an amazing team win,” Doncic said afterward. “Everybody was locked in, everybody was playing as hard as they can. We didn’t take one play off. This is an incredible team win.
“I’m going to enjoy this win tonight, and tomorrow we will think about Golden State.”
Devin Booker scored 11 points on 3-of14 shooting in his first career Game 7 for the Suns, who won an NBA-best 64 games. That output also set a franchise record.
Booker missed his first nine field-goal attempts before sinking a jumper with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Starting anchors Booker, Chris Paul (10 points, 4-of-8 shooting) and Deandre Ayton (five points, 2-for-5) totaled 26 points on combined 9-of-27 shooting. Overall, Phoenix shot 37.9 percent from the field, including 12-of-34 from behind the arc.
“They did a good job of getting the ball out of my hand and trapping,” Booker said. “I’ve always said I’m not the person who is going to try to shoot over eight people, I’m going to try to make the right play. I missed shots early and missed the open ones I got.”
The Mavericks were the first road team to win in the seven-game series. Dallas lost its first three visits to Phoenix by an
average of 19 points, including a dismal 110-80 setback in Game 5.
After falling behind 2-0 and 3-2 in the series, Dallas won the final two games by an average of 30 points.
Dallas coach Jason Kidd didn’t care whether the winning margin was 33 or one.
“We’re not looking at the blowout. We just came in and executed our game plan,” Kidd said. “I think they came out and played it as just another game and played it as a high level. Offensively and defensively, we were active.”
The Mavericks shot 56.8 percent from the field and made 19-of-39 from threepoint range in the wire-to-wire victory. Doncic was 6-of-11 from behind the arc and Dinwiddie made 5-of-7.
Cameron Johnson scored a team-high 12 for Phoenix, which sustained a painful loss after reaching last season’s NBA Finals before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks.
“We basically played the worst game of the season tonight,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “That group has a lot of character and integrity. I know how bad they wanted it. We just could not execute, could not make a shot early, and that messed with us a little bit and Dallas played their tails off from start to finish.
“From my standpoint, I did not have us ready to play in a Game 7.”
Celtics 109, Bucks 81
Grant Williams exploded for a careerhigh 27 points and led a defensive charge on Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo as host Boston advanced to the NBA’s final four with a romp over the defending-champion Bucks in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Jayson Tatum chipped in with 23 points and Jaylen Brown 19 for the second-seeded Celtics, who will advance to face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Finals. Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday in Miami.
The Celtics will be making their fourth trip to the Eastern Finals in the last six seasons. They have not advanced to an NBA Finals since 2010, having lost four consecutive times when one step away, twice to the Heat and twice to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After losing twice at home earlier in the series and falling behind 10-3 in the best-of-seven finale, the Celtics dominated the final 44 minutes, especially from long range.
Williams, a third-year pro who had never scored more than 21 points in his NBA career and never made more than six three-pointers, stunned the Bucks with 7-for-18 accuracy from beyond the arc, accounting for all but six of his points.
“I told him to ‘Let it fly. They’re disrespecting you more tonight than earlier in the series,’” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said of his message to Williams. “That was the plan for him and other guys.”
Tatum added five three-pointers and Payton Pritchard four as the Celtics shot 22-for-55 on three-point tries, outscoring the Bucks by a whopping 66-12 from beyond the arc.
With Jrue Holiday and Pat Connaughton combining for 0-for-11, Milwaukee went just 4-for-33 from deep.
“They were the better team in a seven-game series,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of Boston.
Antetokounmpo, who had averaged 35.3 points on 46.8-percent shooting in the first six games of the series, was harassed into 10-for-26 shooting and limited to a team-high 25 points.
“I felt like we started grinding him down,” Udoka said of the two-time league MVP. “He missed some of the easier shots around the basket. That’s what we talked about. It’s not just one guy guarding him. We stuck with that.”
He also found time for a game-high 20 rebounds and team-high nine assists.
Holiday finished with 21 points and Bobby Portis 10 for the Bucks, while Brook Lopez logged a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. (Reuters)