Boston wins in Miami (116-99) and stays alive

In the obligation to win under penalty of elimination, the Boston Celtics succeeded on Tuesday (116-99) on the floor of the Miami Heat, led Jayson Tatum (33 points), to return to 3-1 in the final of the Eastern Conference.

“We were down 3-0, but we didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves. We try to take one game at a time. We weren’t thinking about winning four times in a row tonight, we were just trying to save our season and that’s what we did.”commented Tatum.

Boston must chain three more successes in a row to reverse this highly compromised situation. However in history, in 150 occasions, never a team trailing 3 to 0 has won a series in seven matches.

The Heat therefore remain in a very favorable situation to try to play a seventh final, with the objective of winning a fourth league title (after 2006, 2012 and 2013).

The Heat still in a very favorable situation

Tatum (14/22 on shots, 11 rebounds, 7 ists) set the tone, unlike his failure 48 hours earlier. During the third quarter, his 14 points largely contributed to the beautiful escape of the Celtics (88-79) by inflicting a 38-23 on the Floridians.

“Great scorers eventually find a way to score at some point. You don’t expect a great player like Tatum to have many nights without. But we have to try to make it as difficult as possible for him.”pointed out Miami coach Erik Spoelstra.

With a remarkable overall address (51.2% success, 18/45 from 3 points), Boston then continued to widen the gap, with the contributions of Derrick White and Jaylen Brown, authors of 16 and 17 points.

Symbol of the Celtics’ newfound virtues: Grant Williams, author of 14 points and a remarkable counter on Jimmy Butler, without this time provoking the latter as he made the mistake in the second game, sounding the star’s alarm clock.

The latter was the only one to embody a resistance in the third quarter by scoring 15 of his 29 points. For the first time in the series, his teammates were unable to raise their level of play, even if Gabe Vincent (17 points), who hurt his knee in the process, and Caleb Martin (16 pts), n have not failed.