Bam Adebayo had a career-high 32 points and 14 rebounds, as Miami Heat booked their trip to the NBA Finals with a 125-113 game six win over Boston Celtics.
Jimmy Butler added 22 points, Tyler Herro had 19 - 11 in the fourth quarter - and Andre Iguodala scored a season-high 15, as the Heat advanced to the finals for the first time since 2014. Duncan Robinson also scored 15 and Goran Dragic 13.
Jaylen Brown had 26 points, Jayson Tatum 24 with a career-high 11 assists, and Marcus Smart and Kemba Walker 20 apiece for the Celtics, who couldn't come all the way back from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
Miami move on to face Los Angeles Lakers in game one of the finals on Thursday (NZ time).
The Heat erased a six-point deficit in the fourth, when Herro nailed a three-pointer and added another bucket to knot the score at 96 with 7m 40s remaining. Miami pulled ahead 104-102 with 5m 31s left, as Daniel Theis fouled out for Boston, Adebayo hitting one-of-two at the line.
That free throw kicked off a 13-0 run to put the game away for the Heat. Herro gave Miami the game's first double-digit lead at 112-102 with 3m 31s to go and the score was 116-102, before the Celtics snapped a nearly four-minute scoring drought.
Boston got no closer than 10 down the stretch.
Reuters
