Celtics' chance to become 'special'

MIAMI • Along with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics are the joint-most decorated team in National Basketball Association (NBA) history with 17 titles.

But it has been 14 long years since their then "Big Three" of NBA greats Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen led them to the championship.

While Boston are a regular presence in the play-offs - they have missed the post-season just once since 2008 - they have also not made the NBA Finals after they lost to the Lakers in 2010.

The Celtics have the opportunity to put that right in Game 6 today, as a victory on home court will settle their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat.

Jaylen Brown scored 25 points and Jayson Tatum added 22 as Boston won 93-80 on the road on Wednesday for a 3-2 edge.

Boston are known to have some of the most passionate fans in the NBA and the TD Garden will be rocking in anticipation today.

So are the players, even though they are expecting Miami to try to force a series-deciding Game 7.

"This is a great opportunity," Brown said. "We have an opportunity to do something special."

Tatum, who also had game-highs of 12 rebounds and nine assists, added: "We can't think it's over. We have to go home like we're down 3-2, with a sense of urgency.

"Not being satisfied. We've got things to clean up, we've got to be playing better. The job is not done yet. It's far from over."

A physical, defensive-minded contest was decided late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, when the Celtics went on a 24-2 run, as the visitors improved to 6-2 on the road in this year's play-offs.

"We just got it going offensively," Brown said. "We stopped turning the ball over. We cleaned it up, made more shots and got settled in. The game opened up in the second half. My team needed me to come out and respond."

Bam Adebayo led the hosts with 18 points and also added 10 rebounds, but the Heat shot just 30-of-94 from the floor and seven-of-45 from three-point range.

Miami's starting backcourt, Max Strus and Kyle Lowry, were awful, shooting zero-of-15 from the floor, zero-for-12 from downtown and scoring a total of four points.

With Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro missing for the second successive game through injury, the Heat had no one else they could bring off the bench to impact the contest, while Jimmy Butler has not looked right since leaving Game 3 early with a knee problem.

But the All-Star, who had just 13 points on the night and has been seven-of-32 from the field in consecutive losses, will not make any excuses as Miami, the top seeds in the East, try to stay alive today.

"It doesn't matter; if I'm out there, I've got to do better," Butler said. "I've got to find a way to help us win, and I haven't been doing that. I'm fine. My knee is OK. I've just got to do better. It's no excuse.

"Besides the fact that anything is possible, we know what we are capable of. We know we can play some really good basketball, and we know that we are going to play some really good basketball.

"It's going to have to start in this next game up in Boston. But I just think that we know that we can win."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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