Miami Heat destroyed the helpless Celtics and is one win away from the NBA Finals.

The eighth-seeded Miami Heat defeated the Boston Celtics 128-102 on Sunday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference title series, with Gabe Vincent scoring a career-high 29 points, Duncan Robinson adding 22 points, and Miami moving one victory closer to the NBA finals.

For Miami, which is up 3-0 in the series, Caleb Martin scored 18 points, Jimmy Butler ended with 16, Bam Adebayo had 13, and Max Strus contributed 10. The Heat are 8-0 in best-of-seven series after winning the first three games; every team that has done so in NBA history has gone on to win the series in the end.

For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum scored 14 points, while Jaylen Brown added 12. The Celtics, who defeated Miami three times on their way to winning the Eastern Conference finals last season, just didn’t have a chance in this game, and they essentially emptied the bench for the fourth quarter.

Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams each scored 12 for Boston. Tuesday is Miami’s Game 4.

On June 1, the NBA finals will begin, and based on current trends, the league may be poised to go a few days without games. Denver has a 3-0 series advantage against the Los Angeles Lakers, which might mean the Western Conference finals are over on Monday. The East finals might potentially conclude on Tuesday.

Never in a season have both conference finals been swept; in the division finals that preceded the championship series in 1957, Boston defeated Syracuse by a score of 3-0 and St. Louis defeated Minneapolis by the same score.

The Heat, a No. 8 seed who struggled to even qualify for the playoffs, defeated top-seeded Milwaukee in five games, fifth-seeded New York in six, and are now in danger of denying the No. 2 seeded Celtics a second straight East title. Of all the 3-0 series leads in NBA history, this one may be the most unexpected.

The Heat also expressed their enjoyment of this one to Boston.

Butler signalled a timeout to Boston’s Al Horford in Game 3’s third quarter as the Heat were cruising to victory. Horford had previously signalled a timeout to Miami’s bench during Game 1’s second-quarter Celtics surge to create a comfortable lead.

In any case, the Heat came back to win Game 1. The Heat did not need to rally in Game 3. For that matter, the Celtics hardly made any attempts.

Marcus Smart’s three-point play on Boston’s first possession of the second half brought Boston within 61-49. The remainder was all Miami, which stepped up with a 28-7 run to create a 33-point advantage at 89-56, sending the arena into overdrive. The 20,088-person sellout audience was actually a little sombre by the time it was done since the lead was so large and there was so much time remaining.

They may have heard shouts. The Florida Panthers, another No. 8 seed on a remarkable playoff run in south Florida, will attempt to take a 3-0 lead in their East Finals series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night, so perhaps they were saving it for hockey.


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