Celtics in eastern finals vs heat

Jayson Tatum finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds as the Boston Celtics booked their spot in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals with a 92-87 Game 7 win over the defending champion Toronto Raptors on Friday.

Jaylen Brown scored 21 points, Marcus Smart added 16 points and Kemba Walker 14 for the Celtics, who won the series 4-3 and advanced to their third Eastern Conference finals in the past four seasons.

“If you want to achieve something great, if you want to win, it’s not going to be easy,” Tatum said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

Boston will play the Miami Heat with Game 1 of the best-of-seven series scheduled for Tuesday in the quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida.

Fred VanVleet had 20 points to lead the Raptors, whose title defense came to a close after battling back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the series.

“We didn’t play great in this series. There is no denying that. But pretty much everything else we did this season, we were awesome,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said.

Kyle Lowry had 16 points before fouling out in the final minute. Pascal Siakam scored 13 points with 11 rebounds as the Raptors turned the ball over 18 times, including a half dozen times in the fourth quarter.

Smart made a clutch block on Siakam late in the fourth with Boston up by just two, 89-87. Lowry fouled out on the other end with 35 seconds to go.

In the Western Conference, Jamal Murray sparked a fourth-quarter rally and rookie Michael Porter made several clutch plays down the stretch as the Denver Nuggets stayed alive with a 111-105 upset of the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Nuggets turned up the heat on the Clippers in the fourth quarter to cut Los Angeles’ lead in the semi-final series to 3-2.

Canada’s Murray scored a team high 26 points, Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and Paul Millsap tallied 17 points for the Nuggets, who were also down 3-1 in the previous series before storming back to win three straight against the Utah Jazz.

Murray was able to bust loose in game five after being contained for much of the series by a rotating trio of Clippers defenders, including Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley.

“We play the best when our backs are against the wall,” said Murray. “It is as simple as that.”