{"id":300613,"date":"2023-05-26T06:10:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T06:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=300613"},"modified":"2023-05-26T06:58:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T06:58:36","slug":"celtics-threatening-nba-history-after-playoff-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=300613","title":{"rendered":"Celtics threatening NBA history after playoff win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat<\/a> insist they are as confident as ever, even after missing two chances to eliminate the Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They will get the next one, Jimmy Butler<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be all smiles,\u201d Butler said after the Celtics won 110-97 on Friday AEST to cut the Heat\u2019s lead in the series to 3-2. \u201cWe are going to keep it very, very, very consistent, knowing that we are going to win the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Heat are headed home with still two more chances to clinch a spot in the NBA<\/a> Finals. But they would be wise to do it in game six of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday and avoid a decisive seventh game in Boston.<\/p>\n

\"BOSTON,<\/p>\n

The eighth-seeded Heat won the first three games \u2013 two of them in Boston \u2013 to put the defending Eastern Conference champions on the brink of elimination. None of the other 150 teams in NBA history to fall behind 3-0 have come back to win a best-of-seven playoff series.<\/p>\n

But the Celtics won game four in Miami by 17 points and then led by as many as 24 in a game five victory that was Boston\u2019s first home win over the Heat all season. Heat centre Bam Adebayo, who had 16 points and eight rebounds \u2014 but also six turnovers \u2014 said Miami was still confident it could finish off the Celtics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we lose confidence?\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we started this journey, nobody believed in us. Everybody thought we were going to be out in the first round. Everybody thought we were going to be out in the second round. And now we are here, one game away. For us, we\u2019ve always had confidence, and that\u2019s not going to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BOSTON,<\/p>\n

Butler, Miami's emotional leader and the star of the first two games of the series, scored only 14 points on Friday \u2014 his lowest total in this year's postseason \u2014 and went 1-for-5 in the first quarter when Boston opened a 15-point lead. Miami played all but the first five minutes of the game trailing by double digits, and only got as close as 10 with one minute to go after a meaningless 9-0 run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two games are not who we are,\u201d Butler said. \u201cWe\u2019re always going to stay positive, knowing that we can and we will win the series. We just have to close it out at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, Miami will have to respond from a blowout \u2014 just the way Boston did after a game three loss that left players openly questioning rookie coach Joe Mazzulla.<\/p>\n

Asked about his team\u2019s mood, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: \u201cWho cares about mood?\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPNStatsInfo\/status\/1661925576926547969<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a gnarly group," he said. \u201cI think so much of that is overrated. It\u2019s a competitive series. You always expect things to be challenging in the conference finals. One game doesn\u2019t lead to the next game. … It doesn\u2019t matter if you lose by whatever. We beat them by whatever in game three. It just doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo out all series and Gabe Vincent joining him on the sideline on Friday because of a sprained ankle, Miami did get contributions from its bench \u2014 including 15 points from forward Haywood Highsmith, who hadn't played meaningful minutes in the first four games. Duncan Robinson had 18 points and nine assists, while Caleb Martin had 14 points to help the Heat bench outscore Boston's 53-15.<\/p>\n

Spoelstra's message to the team: \u201cJust to really not forget this,\u201d Robinson said. "Shift our focus to Sunday. Let this sting, just do what it takes to maintain that edge that we play our best with.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat insist they are as confident as ever, even after missing two chances to eliminate the Boston Celtics. They will get the next […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300618,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300613\/revisions\/300618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}