The Boston Celtics’ season didn’t end in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference finals matchup with the Miami Heat, and now there is a flicker of hope.
Whether Boston’s 116-99 victory on Tuesday night was the start of a miraculous revival or simply a momentary reprieve from what NBA history suggests is still inevitable remains to be determined.
In his NBA-record 282nd career playoff game, Lebron James dropped 21 points in a dynamic first quarter in Game 4. He added 10 more in the second while playing nearly the entire half of a do-or-die game against the top-seeded Nuggets.
Jimmy Butler’s stellar postseason run continued, and the Miami Heat still look nothing like a No. 8 seed.
LeBron James began the final game of his 20th NBA season with the highest-scoring postseason half of his matchless NBA career.
He ended the night by questioning how much longer he plans to chase history after his Los Angeles Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers’ lesson was more about the slow start than the furious finish.“It’s the Western Conference finals — you can’t ease into games,” Davis said. “Even though they say, ‘Oh, Game 1 is a feel-out game’ and everything like that, you never want to ease into the game, especially at this point in the season.”
There has never been a pair of 4-0 sweeps in the third round of the NBA playoffs, but the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat are in position to change that. The Nuggets lead the Los Angeles Lakers 3-0 in the Western Conference finals; the Heat lead the Boston Celtics 3-0 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Boulogne-Levallois' Victor Wembanyama dunks during the Elite basketball match Boulogne-Levallois against Paris at the Palais de Sports Marcel Cerdan stadium in Levallois-Perret, outside Paris, Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
Jimmy Butler scored 27 points, hitting back-to-back buckets to tie the game and give Miami the lead, and the eighth-seeded Heat left Boston with a 111-105 victory Friday night and a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
JasonTatum erupted for 51 points – the most in a Game 7 in history — and the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 112-88 on Sunday to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year.
