INDIANAPOLIS — Because of some late heroics from Jaylen Brown, the Boston Celtics have superior to the NBA Finals for a second time in three years.
Brown, who completed with 29 factors in Monday’s Sport 4 of the Japanese Convention finals, had a block on Andrew Nembhard then hit Derrick White for a 3-pointer inside the ultimate minute — a shot that gave Boston its first lead because the opening moments of the second half.
It ended up being the distinction within the Celtics’ 105-102 victory over the Indiana Pacers, as Boston accomplished the sweep to achieve the league’s championship spherical.
Brown was named the Larry Chook Japanese Convention finals MVP after averaging practically 30 factors on 51.7% taking pictures from the sector within the collection.
With the win, the Celtics ensured themselves 10 days off to relaxation up for the beginning of the NBA Finals, which can start — no matter what occurs within the Western Convention finals that might finish as quickly as Tuesday night time with a Dallas Mavericks victory — on June 6 at Boston’s TD Backyard.
A ultimate couple of minutes that featured a bunch of turnovers each methods was in the end determined by Brown first blocking Nembhard then kicking the ball out to White within the nook. From there, the Celtics escaped, as Nembhard missed a possible tying 3-pointer on the different finish and, after a missed 3 by Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Jrue Vacation secured the offensive rebound to permit time to expire.
The White shot closed out a 20-8 run over the ultimate couple of minutes of the competition.
After making it to the Japanese Convention finals for a sixth time in eight seasons, Boston dispatched Indiana within the minimal variety of video games, persevering with a uncommon run by the postseason for the Celtics. And whereas it has included dealing with the Miami Warmth with out Jimmy Butler, the Cleveland Cavaliers with out Jarrett Allen for the entire collection and Donovan Mitchell for 2 video games, and now the Pacers with out Tyrese Haliburton for the ultimate two-plus contests, Boston nonetheless went 12-2 and had a number of blowout victories alongside the best way.
Boston is the 18th staff because the playoffs expanded in 1984 to enter the NBA Finals with two or fewer losses, in keeping with ESPN Stats & Info analysis. The prior 17 groups went 12-5 within the Finals.
In step with how this complete collection performed out, Indiana made life as tough on Boston because it might. Nembhard, coming off a 32-point, 9-assist efficiency in Sport 3, lit up the scoreboard once more within the first half, ending with 16 factors and 5 assists to maintain Indiana inside some extent of the Celtics on the break.
He then put Indiana again out in entrance to start out the second half with a pleasant move to Myles Turner for a 3-pointer on the opening possession, earlier than the 2 of them linked for one more Turner trey a minute later.
The lead would ultimately balloon to Indiana’s greatest of the sport at 68-62 with 8:57 to go within the third, when former Celtic Aaron Nesmith buried an elbow jumper to power a timeout from Joe Mazzulla.
Boston would not tie the sport once more till the opening possession of the fourth quarter, when Brown splashed in a 3 from the left wing to tie the rating at 83 — just for T.J. McConnell, who spent these playoffs smack dab in the course of many of the good issues that occurred for the Pacers, to make three straight buckets to maintain Indiana in entrance.
Through the ensuing timeout after McConnell’s barrage, referee Zach Zarba introduced to the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd that Brown’s quarter-opening 3-pointer got here after the shot clock expired, that means Indiana had been given its greatest lead of the sport at 89-82 with 10:13 remaining.
A short while later, Nembhard drove to the bucket and dropped in an and-1 layup to provide Indiana a 94-85 lead. On the following journey down the courtroom, McConnell minimize to the basket for a very wide-open layup however missed it, retaining Indiana’s lead at 9 factors as an alternative of increasing it to double digits.
That was adopted by Boston occurring a 13-6 run to chop the lead all the best way all the way down to 100-98 on an and-1 layup by Vacation with slightly below 4 minutes remaining, establishing the ultimate frenetic end in a collection that featured a number of of them.
And identical to the primary three video games, it was Boston that made simply sufficient performs to flee — and, because of this, booked a visit again to the NBA Finals.
