Celtics defeat Raptors in Game 7 and head to East finals against Heat

Jayson Tatum (0) of the Boston Celtics drives against Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors during the second half of an NBA conference semifinal basketball game on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ( AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – It took seven games, but Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics are heading to the Eastern Conference finals.

And they dethroned the NBA champions to get there.

Tatum scored 29 points, Jaylen Brown had 21 and the Celtics edged the Toronto Raptors 92-87 on Friday night in Game 7 of the Eastern semifinal series.

Marcus Smart scored 16 points and Kemba Walker added 14 for third-seeded Boston. The Celtics will face the fifth-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Final.

Fred VanVleet scored 20 points for Toronto, which got 16 from Kyle Lowry, 14 from Serge Ibaka, 13 from Pascal Siakam and 11 from Norman Powell. The Raptors were aiming to become the seventh franchise in NBA history to win four consecutive Game 7s.

Boston scored the first seven points of the quarter, taking an eight-point lead. The Celtics were never behind in the fourth quarter, although it was near the end.

Powell had a chance to tie on a drive with just under a minute to play, his layup obliterated by Smart with a block that retained an 89-87 lead. Lowry fouled on the next possession, a call the Raptors argued and challenged to no avail. Grant Williams missed both free throws, but Powell fouled Tatum for the rebound.

Tatum made one of two, the lead was three and all Boston needed was one more stop.

The Celtics got that; VanVleet came up short on a 3-point attempt, Kemba Walker sealed it with free throws with 7.9 seconds left and Toronto’s reign was about to end.

It was exactly one year ago on Friday when four Celtics – Walker, Smart, Brown and Tatum – were part of the US basketball team in China that fell apart in the last quarter of the World Cup quarterfinals. basketball against France, a loss that kept the Americans out of the Final Four of that tournament.

Not this time. Not this year.

Next week, there will be four NBA teams left standing. The Celtics will be one of them.

The chess game started from the beginning.

The Raptors started in a box and one in Walker, so the Celtics quickly replaced Daniel Theis with Robert Williams early to get more athleticism on the court, and Boston quickly put together what became a 13-0 run at the way to an early 19-7 lead.

Toronto made the next adjustment, pulling out a lineup to end the first quarter that the Celtics had yet to see and quickly on a 10-0 streak. The Raptors were eventually led by up to seven; Boston then took a 15-2 streak to regain the lead and the Celtics ended up taking a 50-46 lead at the break.

The coming and going continued in the third. Boston pushed the lead to nine, Toronto scored the next eight and finally took the lead before the Celtics regained it.

Boston led 72-71 going into the fourth, making it the seventh 21st game in NBA history, where the margin was zero or one point in the final 12 minutes.

TIP-INS

Celtics: Boston became the first team in NBA history to win four games “on the road” in a playoff series. … Gordon Hayward (sprained right ankle) was on the floor taking shots before the game. He hasn’t played since Game 1 of the first-round series against Philadelphia. The Celtics had said he would need four weeks before he recovered; Tuesday is the four week mark.

Raptors: Toronto was eliminated 456 days after winning the previous season’s title, obviously the longest streak for a team that did not win consecutive championships. … The Raptors are scheduled to fly home Saturday afternoon.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Celtics went 2-1 against Miami in the regular season, winning 112-93 on December 4 at Boston and 109-101 in Miami on January 28. The Heat won the only bubble game between the clubs, prevailing 112-106 on August 4.

RARE PARTY

This will be the first time neither the No. 1 seed nor the No. 2 seed in the East have reached the conference finals since the NBA moved to the 16-team playoff format in 1984; It will feature No. 3 Boston and No. 5 Miami.

There have been similar clashes in the West since the league adopted this format. No. 3 Dallas beat No. 4 Oklahoma City in 2011, No. 3 San Antonio beat No. 4 Utah in 2007, and No. 3 Portland beat No. 5 Phoenix in 1990.

The last time something like this happened in the East was in 1969, when No. 4 Boston beat No. 3 New York in what was then the Eastern Division Finals.

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