LeBron James led five players in double figures with 30 points and the Los Angeles Lakers continued their late-season surge with a 122-101 rout of the Golden State Warriors on Friday to advance to the Western Conference finals.
Austin Reaves scored 23 points, D'Angelo Russell added 19 and Anthony Davis showed no ill effects from a head injury in Game 5 with 17 points and 20 rebounds.
Los Angeles improved to 6-0 at home in these playoffs and is back in the West finals for the first time since beating Denver en route to the 2019-20 NBA title. The seventh-seeded Lakers will visit the top-seeded Nuggets on Tuesday.
The Lakers scored the game's first basket and never trailed, leading 56-46 at halftime. The Warriors got as close as 91-80 early in the fourth quarter before the Lakers reeled off the next 11 points to essentially put the game away.
Defending champion Golden State shot just 37.9 percent from the field and missed 35 of 48 from 3-point range. Stephen Curry scored 32 points on 11-of-28 shooting, while Klay Thompson struggled again with eight points on 3 of 19 from the field. The duo combined to shoot 6 of 26 from beyond the arc.
The Lakers haven’t lost back-to-back games since March 17, and have won 11 of their last 12 at home.
Heat book return trip to East finals
Jimmy Butler scored seven of his 24 points down the stretch and the Miami Heat again earned a spot in the Eastern Conference finals with a 96-92 win over the New York Knicks in Game 6 on Friday.
Bam Adebayo had 23 points and nine rebounds and Max Strus chipped in 14 points for Miami, which returns to the East finals for the third time in four years and 10th time overall.
Miami became the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the conference finals - joining the 1999 Knicks. The Heat will visit Boston or Philadelphia in Game 1 on Wednesday. The Celtics and 76ers play Game 7 of their series Sunday.
Jalen Brunson was stellar again for New York with 41 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. He sank two free throws following a flagrant foul on Gabe Vincent and Josh Hart's layup four seconds later drew the Knicks within 92-90 with less than a minute remaining.
New York had a chance to tie after Butler missed a jumper, but Kyle Lowry picked off Brunson's pass and that led to two free throws by Butler with 14 seconds left. Strus closed the scoring with a pair from the line four seconds later.
The Knicks got little offense from Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, who combined for 26 points on 4-of-24 shooting and 1 of 10 from long range.
Tatum 'a shell' after injury as Williams says Celtics 'got punked'
Jayson Tatum lamented an untimely injury while Grant Williams bluntly said the Boston Celtics "got punked" after their defeat to the Miami Heat.
The Celtics fell short of becoming the first team in NBA history to win a seven-game series after going 3-0 down, as the Heat ended their season with a 103-84 win in Boston.
With talisman Tatum hampered by an ankle injury that he sustained on the first play of Monday's game, the Celtics could not get going as Jimmy Butler led the Heat to the NBA Finals.
Tatum finished with 14 points on 5-for-13 shooting, and was left to reflect on a missed opportunity.
"It was just frustrating that I was a shell of myself," Tatum said.
"It was tough to move. Just frustrating, with it happening on the first play."
Williams' assessment was a blunt one.
"We got punked," the Celtics forward told ESPN.
"We didn't play our game from start to finish. Defensively, we just lost it all, and then offensively we were scrambled and trying to do everything ourselves and just didn't go our way.
"You hate to have that be the end of your season, especially with the fight that we've shown. But shots didn't fall either, so that didn't help. It's just tough."
"[We were] missing shots, and then they're coming down and hitting shots," added Marcus Smart.
"It puts a lot of pressure on our defense to get stops. They were hitting some shots and they got in a rhythm and we weren't making ours."
'It wasn't scripted' – Spoelstra credits 'raw' relationship after Heat end Celtics' history bid
Erik Spoelstra hailed the "intimate" and "raw" relationships within the Miami Heat's roster after his team overcame the Boston Celtics to reach the NBA Finals.
The Heat had squandered a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, but Game 7 went their way in emphatic fashion.
Jimmy Butler led Miami with 28 points as the Heat won 103-84, ending the Celtics' bid at history in the process.
Boston was aiming to become the first team to win a seven-game series after losing the opening three encounters, but it was not to be.
"It wasn't scripted," Spoelstra told reporters.
"When you have such an intimate relationship with a locker room and they have it with each other, the staff has it with them, they have it with the staff, sometimes it's just whatever's raw, whatever's real at that time.
"Professional sports is just kind of a reflection sometimes of life, that things don't always go your way.
"The inevitable setbacks happen and it's how you deal with that collectively. There's a lot of different ways that it can go. It can sap your spirit. It can take a team down for whatever reason.
"With this group, it's steeled us and made us closer and made us tougher.
"These are lessons that hopefully we can pass along to our children, that you can develop this fortitude.
"Sometimes you have to suffer for the things that you want. Game 6, the only thing that we can do is sometimes you have to laugh at the things that make you cry."
The Heat are only the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the Finals, after the 1999 New York Knicks.
Butler was named the Eastern Conference finals MVP, and has full confidence the Heat can go all the way against the Denver Nuggets.
"I just know why coach Pat [Riley] and coach Spoelstra wanted me to be here," Butler said. "That's to compete at a high level and to win championships.
"I know that the group that they put around me at all times is going to give me an opportunity to do so.
"I know the work that we all put into it, so I know what we're capable of. Nobody is satisfied. We haven't done anything. We don't play just to win the Eastern Conference; we play to win the whole thing."
Spoelstra reserved special praise for the Heat's talisman.
"There's no way to quantify the confidence that he can instil in everybody. Jimmy has never had to apologise," Spoelstra said of Butler.
"I don't want him to ever apologise for who he is and how he approaches competition. It's intense. It's not for everybody, and we're not for everybody.
"That's why we think it's like an incredible marriage. We never judge him on that. He doesn't judge us for how crazy we get. It's the same language. But the confidence level that he can create for everybody on the roster is incredible.
"He's gnarly, but he knows how to have a soft touch to give somebody some confidence at the right time. That's the special gift that he has."
Heat advance to NBA Finals, foil Celtics' bid at history
Jimmy Butler backed up his bold guarantee and the Miami Heat bounced back to prevent the Boston Celtics from making history.
Butler led all players with 28 points as the Heat advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in four years with a 103-84 rout of the Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night.
Miami went ahead late in the first quarter and never looked back en route to joining the 1999 New York Knicks as the only No. 8 seeds in a conference to reach the NBA Finals. The Heat will meet the Western Conference champion Nuggets with Game 1 to be held Thursday in Denver.
The Heat also denied Boston from becoming the first team in league history to win a seven-game series after losing the first three contests, as well as make Butler's claim after Game 5 that Miami would win the series a reality.
Boston had forced Monday's winner-take-all matchup with a dramatic Game 6 victory in Miami on Saturday, with Derrick White's buzzer-beating tip-in giving the Celtics a 104-103 win and extending the series.
The Celtics could never muster a comeback in Game 7, however, as Miami built a 27-15 lead early in the second quarter and took a 52-41 advantage into half-time.
Boston got the deficit to within seven late in the third quarter before Caleb Martin scored the first eight points of a 12-2 Heat run that put Miami up 83-66 with 10 minutes remaining.
Martin finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, which went 14 of 28 from 3-point range while the Celtics shot just 21.4 per cent from beyond the arc. Butler was named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and received the Larry Bird Trophy, named in honour of the former Celtics great.
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 19 points but went 8 of 23 from the field, while All-Star Jayson Tatum was held to 14 points after playing through a sore ankle he injured early in the contest.
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