Miami. Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown scored 22 points each and the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, of Mexican Jaime Jáquez Jr., 104-84 this Saturday, to lead their first round series of the Eastern Conference playoffs 2-1 of the NBA.
Tatum added ten rebounds and six assists for the Celtics, who led the entire game and claimed home-court advantage after Miami took game two at TD Garden. Kristaps Porzingis had 18 points and Derrick White 16 for Boston, which defined the game with runs of 12-3, 11-0 and 20-8 in the first half.
Jáquez played for 34 minutes, in which he contributed 12 points, five rebounds and the same number of assists. His teammate Bam Adebayo led the Heat, who are still without starters Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier due to injuries, by scoring 20 points, while Nikola Jovic and Tyler Herro contributed 15 points each.
Game four is this Monday in Miami, where the Celtics are 9-2 in their last 11 games, including 6-1 in the postseason.
For their part, the Orlando Magic crushed the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-89 and tied their respective tie 2-2.
Donovan Mitchell and the rest of the Cavaliers’ figures could not avoid being overwhelmed by the Magic’s suffocating defense for the second consecutive game.
German Franz Wagner, 22, was the star of the game at the Kia Center in Orlando with 34 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic.
The performance of the forward, who is competing for the first time in the playoffs, compensated for the weak game of the local star, All-Star center Paolo Banchero, who had nine points and four rebounds.
The Cavaliers went into the locker room with a nine-point lead (51-60), but their attack got out of control after the break, allowing Orlando to go on a 31-5 run.
Cleveland went six long minutes without scoring until finding itself with an already insurmountable deficit of 22 points (92-70) at the beginning of the last quarter.
Mitchell finished with 18 points and center Jarrett Allen with 21 and 9 rebounds.
This Eastern Conference series will return to Cleveland on Tuesday for Game 5.
In turn, the Oklahoma City Thunder signed a peaceful 106-85 victory at the New Orleans Pelicans’ court and lead 3-0 in this West bracket.
The Thunder, the first seed in the conference, will have the opportunity on Monday to seal the sweep and overcome a round of playoffs for the first time since 2016, when, led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, they reached the Western Finals.
Their current leader, Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was the game’s top scorer with 24 points and eight assists, while forward Jalen Williams contributed another 21 points and nine rebounds..
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– 2024-05-02 03:55:32
