Five games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Five blowouts in the Eastern Conference Finals. More importantly is that the home team has been blown out three of the five games. In the critical Game Five back in Miami, the question was who will take the pivotal 3-2 leads?
Well, the answer was made clear in the third quarter in Game Five.
A competitive first half where both teams struggled to score but the Miami Heat took the 42-37 lead at the break. Then the Boston Celtics will take over afterwards with no looking back. The Celtics outscored the Heat 32-16 in the third quarter and took a 69-58 into the fourth quarter on their way to the 93-80 win in South Beach. Another embarrassing home lost in this series, remember Game Two, for the Miami Heat.
Jimmy Butler, the man in Miami, was not to be found. Butler only scored 13 points on 4-18 shooting in 40 minutes of play. Bam Adebayo led the team with 18 points and 10 boards, but he did not look like the Bam from Game Three back in Boston. Klye Lowry did not even score a point in the game, going 0-6 shooting with five of those shots being from three. There was no Tyler Herro in Game Five just like in Game Four and both games the Heat could not put points and suffered blowout losses.
Now, the Boston Celtics, just a game away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the second half charge for the Celtics in Game Five. Tatum had 22 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists while Brown had 25 points to lead all scoring. Al Horford put in 16 points, seven boards, and five assists. Derrick White, off the bench, added 14 points and five assists as the Celtics outscored the Heat 56-38 in the second half.
Game Six will be on Friday night back in Boston at 8:30PM on ESPN
Boston lead the series 3-2 with the opportunity to advances to the NBA Finals