Heat steamroll Celtics to close in on NBA Finals

Miami

— Gabe Vincent scored a career-high 29 points, Duncan Robinson added 22 and the eighth-seeded Miami Heat moved one win from the NBA Finals after rolling past the Boston Celtics, 128-102, on Sunday night (Monday, Manila time) in Game Three of the Eastern Conference title series.

Caleb Martin scored 18, Jimmy Butler finished with 16, Bam Adebayo had 13 and Max Strus added 10 for Miami, which leads the series 3-0. Every team in NBA history that has won the first three games of a best-of-seven has ultimately prevailed; the Heat are

8-0 in that situation.

Jayson Tatum scored 14 and Jaylen Brown added 12 for the Celtics, who won three times on Miami’s floor on the way to winning last season’s Eastern Conference finals — but simply never had a chance in this one and basically emptied the bench for the fourth quarter.

Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard each had 12 for Boston. Game Four is Tuesday in Miami.

FRED C. LUMBA

May be, may be not.

We don’t have to go back historically just so to find a good reason why the Lakers can still overcome the Nuggets.

At 0-3, the Showtime team is in a such deep hole that only the most fanatic like Jack Nicholson of One who Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest will continue pledging his deep loyalty.

If this team battling Denver were composed of KAJ, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, Michael Cooper, Mychal Thompson, Byron Scott and A.C. Green, I will most likely still throw my support behind them.

But no. This Lebron James-led squad is of different stuff.

They did not grow up together and molded collectively by the former coach of the year Pat Riley.

Imagine playing at home and needing to nail Game 3 to give them more breathing space. Hey, James and AD choked, infecting D-Angelo Russel and Lonnie Walker who watched Jamal Murray sink those threes from all angles.

Only Austin Reaves somewhat provided outside firepower and Riu Hachimura’s futile guarding efforts who tried putting the cuffs on big guy Nikola Jokic.

The NBA Finals start June 1, and the way things are going, that might mean the league is about to go a few days without games. The Western Conference finals could end Monday; Denver leads that series against the Los Angeles Lakers 3-0. And now, the East finals could end Tuesday.

There’s never been a season where both conference finals ended in sweeps; it happened in 1957 in the division finals immediately

CAN JAMES & AD SURVIVE?

Let’s us not talk about statistics here anymore.

Regardless of how many points, rebounds, assists and blocks the Laker duo produced in Game 3, the fact remains that everyone in the Laker roster - including coach Darvin Ham - failed to contain Murray, Porter and Brown from pouring in the points that mattered most.

Coaches are of the agreed opinion that a win is a win regardless if you won by one point or 20.

James, AD and the LA boys were in control for much of the game but they cooled off in the pivotal third and fourth quarters.

Know what?

Ham allowed Jokic to do his thing inside the paint and underneath the basket, collaring rebounds with impunity and penetrating the interior defense.

Take Jokic out of Denver and the whole offensive and defensive systems will collapse.

Meaning, the two-time MVP must be boxed out of action.

Hachimura looked so puny with his 6’8” frame he couldn’t even budge the fella even just an inch away from the action.

I kept on chattering about giving Tristan Thompson adequate preceding the title series, when Boston beat Syracuse 3-0 and St. Louis beat Minneapolis 3-0. Of all the 3-0 series leads in NBA history, this one might be the most unexpected — a No. 8 seed in the Heat, a team that struggled just to get into the playoffs, a team that was less than 3 minutes away from being eliminated in the play-in tournament, getting past top-seeded Milwaukee in FHEAT, P10 time to take on Jokic. Were it not for this guy, James would not hav achieved his championship ambitions in Cleveland.

Yes, Jokic is the problem. The Lakers crowd him inside but the Nugget center has such a pair of eagle eyes he could see the open man. Boom!

I think - as did James and AD did versus the Warriors - Jokic et al would rather clinch the semifinal victory back home for a final 4-1 tally fso that Denver fans can savor the feat with pure and ecstatic euphoria. (Email feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!