Their will be a new NBA Champion this season. The Boston Celtics got a game high and career high 27 points from Grant Williams on Sunday afternoon, knocking out the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks in emphatic fashion 109-81 in Game 7 of an Eastern Conference Semifinal series at TD Garden in Boston. The win advances Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals against the East top seed Miami Heat.
Milwaukee bolted out to a 10-3 lead, as Boston started just 1-8 from the field and shot just 29% in the first 12 minutes. The Bucks would lead by as many as 10, and 26-20 after one quarter. The Celtics took their first lead since early in the first on a dunk from Al Horford off a nice feed from Payton Pritchard at 32-30, before Milwaukee scored the next seven in a row capped off by a running shot off the glass by Giannis Antetokounmpo 37-32. Boston took their biggest advantage of the first half in the final seconds, when Marcus Smart stole the ball from Antetokounmpo and went up to attempt a shot from halfcourt as the clock was winding down and was fouled by Antetokounmpo leading to three made free throws and a 48-43 halftime lead.
An 11-4 run by Boston to start the third quarter included three-pointers from Williams, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown to increase the lead to 59-47 less than two minutes in forcing a Milwaukee timeout. They went up 16 later in the period when Williams hit his sixth three-pointer of the afternoon, and took a 79-64 advantage to the fourth quarter. The closest the guests would get from there is 13 on the first basket to start the fourth, and the Celtics would be up 22 when Smart nailed a three-pointer with 5:20 to play. Their biggest lead was 28 in the final minute which was the final margin. Boston, who blew a 14 point fourth quarter lead and fell in Game 5 in Boston, end up outscoring Milwaukee by 41 in the final two games to capture the series.
Williams finished 10-22 from the field (7-18 three-pointers) while also adding six rebounds. The 7 three-pointers were also a career high. Tatum had 23 points, six rebounds, and eight assists. Brown contributed 19 points and eight rebounds, Pritchard scored 14 points with five rebounds and three assists off the bench, and Smart also got into double figures with 11 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists. Boston would shoot 22-55 from three-point range (after a 5-19 first quarter), compared to just 4-33 for Milwaukee (54 point difference). In the series, the green hit 53 more three-pointers than the Bucks which is the largest gap in any playoff series matchup in NBA history (159 points). Antetokounmpo, as he did the entire seven games, led the Bucks in the loss with 25 points, 20 rebounds, nine assists, two steals, and one block. He became the first player ever to score 200 points (237), collect 100 rebounds (103), and dish out 50 assists (51) in a playoff series. Jrue Holiday had 21 points, while Brook Lopez chipped in 15 points as Milwaukee ends their season with a record of 58-36. The Celtics now face the Miami Heat (61-32) for a chance to get into the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010 in the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals that begins Tuesday night in Miami at 8:30 p.m. The teams split their regular season meetings 2-2, and meet in the ECF for the second time in three years as the Heat eliminated the C’s in Game 6 in the 2020 Eastern Final in the bubble. This will be the 74th Eastern Conference Finals series in the history of the league, with Boston playing in now half of those (37). The upcoming schedule is listed below-
Eastern Conference Finals Boston (59-34) vs Miami (61-32):
Game 1 Tuesday, May 17 @Miami 8:30
Game 2 Thursday, May 19 @Miami 8:30
Game 3 Saturday, May 21 @Boston 8:30
Game 4 Monday, May 23 @Boston 8:30
*Game 5 Wednesday, May 25 @Miami 8:30
*Game 6 Friday, May 27 @Boston 8:30
*Game 7 Sunday, May 29 @Miami 8:30
*-if necessary
