Gabe Vincent hit 11 of his 14 shots from the floor on Sunday night for a game-high 29 points, as the Miami Heat crushed the Boston Celtics 128-102 in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Kaseya Center in Miami. The Heat now take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the best of seven.
A back and forth first quarter saw both teams grabbing a lead. Boston would take what turned out to be their last lead of the game on a Jaylen Brown fadeaway jumper at 16-14. Miami would make a run and build their advantage to 10, and a 16-6 spurt to close out the period had the Heat up 30-22. With the Celtics not playing well and still hanging around in the early moments of the second period, the hosts would open some separation. A 25-10 run over a span of 5:44 stretched a seven point lead all the way up to 22. Vincent, Caleb Martin, and Duncan Robinson combined to hit four 3-pointers during that run as Miami held a comfortable 15 point halftime lead.
A three point play by Marcus Smart early in the third quarter to cut it to 12 for Boston is the closest they’d be the rest of the way. Miami would score 28 of the next 35 points and put the game away, capped off by a pair of Jimmy Butler free throws for the biggest lead of the night at 89-56.
Jayson Tatum led Boston in the loss with just 14 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Tatum was 6-18 from the field (1-7 three-pointers). Brown (6-18, 0-7 three-point), Grant Williams, and Peyton Pritchard had 12 points a piece. Luke Kornet played the final quarter and scored 11 points. The Celtics shot 39.8% overall and 26.2% from behind the arc (11-42). Vincent was 6-9 from downtown as part of his game-high point total for Miami. Robinson came off the bench to contribute 22 points (5-7 three-pointers). The trio of Vincent, Robinson, and Martin combined to hit 15-23 from three-point territory. Martin with 18 points, Butler 16, Bam Adebayo 13, and Max Strus with 10 all chipped in for the Heat who ended up shooting 56.8% on the night. The 26 point win is the biggest margin of victory in a postseason game ever for a #8 seed. In any playoff series in the history of the league, teams with a 3-0 lead are 149-0 all-time. Game four in Miami is Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m.
Story by Chris Lessner/Highlight video is courtesy of the NBA website
