76ers Rival Watch: Heat One Step Closer to Eliminating Celtics

The Philadelphia 76ers nearly put the Boston Celtics away for good a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, Boston managed to rally from a 2-3 deficit and fired off two-straight wins to turn the tables and avoid elimination by putting the Sixers away in seven games.

The Celtics’ run just might end in the Eastern Conference Finals, though. Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat have been dominating throughout the 2023 NBA Playoffs, even while missing key members of their roster due to injury.

Although it took multiple Play-In games to crack the Eastern Conference’s final seed, the Heat have done a ton of winning when it counts the most. After knocking out the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games, the Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, where they took on the New York Knicks.

While the Knicks could force more wins than the Bucks, the Heat took care of business in six games by winning 4-2. When the Heat and the Celtics met for the first two matchups of the Eastern Conference Finals last week, Miami had to pay a visit to TD Garden for Games 1 and 2.

Despite being underdogs in the eyes of Vegas, the Heat fired off two-straight wins on the road in Boston. On Sunday night, the series went to South Beach for the first time this postseason.

Although Boston’s backs were clearly against the wall, they didn’t perform like a team that had a ton of urgency through the first half of Sunday’s game. Knocking down just 40 percent of their shots from the field, the Celtics were outscored by 15 points before going into halftime.

The third quarter was an opportunity for Boston to shift the momentum, but they simply did not have it going on Sunday. Hitting on just seven of their 24 shots, Boston’s offensive performance compared to Miami's was like night and day.

With the Heat draining nearly 60 percent of their shots from the field on five fewer shots, the Heat outscored the Celtics 32-17 to garner a 93-63 lead before heading into the fourth quarter.

No surprising comebacks were in store. While the Celtics finally outscored the Heat in a high-scoring fourth quarter, they nearly gave up just as many points as they scored during their 39-point showing in the final 12 minutes.

In the end, the Celtics came up way short, losing 128-102. Miami’s Gabe Vincent shot efficiently en route to a game-high 29 minutes. With that win, the Heat advance to 3-0 in the series, taking one step closer to eliminating the Celtics and punching their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals.