HEAT A WIN AWAY
Heat roll past Celtics, take 3-0 lead in Eastern Conference finals
MIAMI – Erik Spoelstra had his team fully expecting that Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals would be extremely difficult, that the Miami Heat were going to have to take the best shot that a desperate bunch of Boston Celtics could muster. He was wrong.
It was a Heat romp – and a team that had to pull off a frantic rally just to make the playoffs is now one win from the NBA Finals.
Gabe Vincent scored a career-high 29 points, Duncan Robinson added 22 and the eighth-seeded Heat rolled past the Celtics 128-102 on Sunday night. Miami leads the series 3-0, with a chance to finish off a stunning sweep on Tuesday night at home in Game 4,
“That was a solid, mature, professional approach,” said 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.”
Caleb Martin scored 18, Jimmy Butler finished with 16, Bam Adebayo had 13 and Max Strus added 10 for Miami. Every team in NBA history that has won the first three games of a best-of-seven has ultimately prevailed; the Heat are 8-0 in that situation.
“The rim was as big as the ocean for everybody,” Adebayo said, after Miami shot 57%.
Jayson Tatum scored 14 and Jaylen Brown added 12 for the second-seeded Celtics, who won three times on Miami’s floor on the way to winning last season’s East finals – but simply never had a chance in this one and basically emptied the bench for the fourth quarter.
“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” said Boston coach Joe Mazzulla, who has been the subject of tons of criticism in this series – and will surely face more going into Tuesday. “Whatever it was, whether it was the starting lineup or an adjustment, I have to get them in a better place, ready to play. That’s on me.”
Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard each added 12 for Boston.
“To their credit, they’re playing well above their means,” Brown said. “They’re ballin’ right now and I’ve got to give them respect. Gabe Vincent, Martin, Strus, Duncan Robinson, guys that we should be able to keep under control are playing their (butt) off.” /
For another, no team that’s down 3-0 has ever come back to win in NBA history. Add the fact that teams leading 3-0 are 149-0 in NBA’s playoff series lore. And the Lakers’ 119-108 Game Three loss to the Nuggets on Sunday could be ominous as it was Los Angeles’ first homecourt defeat after winning six straight this season. AL S. MENDOZA Columnist