NBA Score: Celtics beat Miami again, one step closer to NBA history

The Celtics fended off the Heat at home, 110-97, forcing Game 6 in Miami

Thursday night marked the fourth time the Boston Celtics have faced and elimination scenario this postseason. Considering they are alive today I will give you one guess on their record in those games.

On Wednesday night, the Celtics took one baby step closer to history, beating the Heat in dominant style on their home floor to send the series back to Miami for Game 6. The Heat, given their strong start to the series, still have a 3-2 advantage. , and now has the opportunity to close the series at home. The team that starts the series with a 3-0 lead is 150-0. The close-out opportunity at home feels almost storybook.

Then again, so did the sweep that looked and felt inevitable after the Game 3 loss to the Celtics’ showing, which put them at 3-0 in the hole. But suddenly, Boston had won two games in a row to make this a draw, and was looking dominant doing it. They won by 17 points in Game 4 at home to Miami, and then immediately took Heat duties with a misleading 13-point win in Boston. (Should have been a bigger bang, but trash time is called trash time for a reason.)

Derrick White scored 24 points, including six 3-pointers, to lead the Celtics. Marcus Smart (23 points and five steals), Jayson Tatum (21 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists), and Jaylen Brown (21 of his own) all finished in double digits to lead the offense. Boston never trailed, forcing Miami’s 16 turnovers, and dropping 41 percent of its three. That’s all you need to know.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Duncan Robinson (!!!) led the Heat with 18 points, while Bam Adebayo added 16 points and eight rebounds. Jimmy Butler had a meager 14 points, five rebounds and five assists, though he sat out most of the fourth quarter. Haywood Highsmith — get 36 minutes who Gabe Vincent left behind when he was sidelined with an ankle injury—scoring 15 points off the bench in his first real action of the postseason.

Game 6 will be held on Saturday in Miami, where the Heat will become the second eighth seed to qualify for the NBA Finals. Boston, meanwhile, will be looking to force a Game 7, which will give them a rare opportunity to make history. If any team is going to do it, so can this shitty group.

As Kevin Millar said of his Boston Red Sox team in 2004, “Don’t count us out.” As Curt Schilling noted of the same team, “Why not us?”