Aurélie SACCHELLI, Media365, published on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 8:02 a.m.
Boston easily won 102-82 against Miami in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, thanks to a great Jayson Tatum (31pts, 8rbds, 5pds), and returned to 2-2 in the series.
If the Western Conference final is very unbalanced, with the very likely qualification of Golden State at the expense of Dallas (no NBA franchise has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the play-offs), we cannot say. as much of the Eastern Conference final! Miami and Boston are going blow for blow, and neither team has lost two games in a row in this series. So after the Heat’s 103-109 victory over the Celtics on Saturday, it was the C’s who won at home on Monday. And not by a small margin! Boston won 102-82 by leading from start to finish, and counting up to 32 points in advance, in the middle of the third quarter, to the delight of its 19,156 fans. From the first quarter, the men of Ime Udoka had shown that they were in a great evening, with a 29-11 to start, while Miami missed 15 of its first 16 shots. Then they drove the point home in the second (28-22), before relaxing a bit in the second half (45-49), but the victory was long overdue.
18 points for the Heat’s five major!
Tyler Herro (Miami) and Marcus Smart (Boston) were the notable absentees from this meeting. But the superstars of the two teams had a very different evening, with on one side an excellent Jayson Tatum, author of 31 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks, and on the other a Jimmy Butler with 6 points (3/14 on shots) and 7 rebounds. Back after knee pain that deprived him of the second half of Match 3, “Jimmy Buckets” could not do anything, nor could Bam Adebayo, magnificent two days ago and only author 9 points and 6 rebounds. It was finally Victor Oladipo (23pts, 6pds) who prevented the note from being saltier. In the end, the Heat’s five major scored only 18 points (a first in an NBA play-off game since 1971!), against 73 for the C’s! Despite everything, the Floridians seem largely capable of reacting, and they have every interest in doing so during Match 5, Wednesday at home.
BASKET – NBA / PLAY-OFFS 2022
Finales
Eastern Conference
MIAMI HEAT (1) – BOSTON CELTICS (2) : 2-2
Match 1 – Miami Heat – Boston Celtics : 118-107
Match 2 – Miami Heat – Boston Celtics : 102-127
Match 3 – Boston Celtics – Miami Heat : 103-109
Match 4 –Boston Celtics – Miami Heat : 102-82
Game 5 on Wednesday, May 25 in Miami
Game 6 on Friday, May 27 in Boston
Game 7 (if necessary) on Sunday May 29 in Miami