By David Awopetu
Jayson Tatum had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Jaylen Brown scored 21 and the Boston Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with a 92-87 win over the Toronto Raptors in Game 7 on Friday night.
Marcus Smart added 16 points and Kemba Walker 14 as the Celtics set up a meeting with the Miami Heat in their third conference finals appearance in the last four seasons. Game 1 of the series will take place Tuesday.
Raptors’ Fred VanVleet missed a three-point attempt that would have tied the game at 90-90 with 12 seconds left, then Kemba Walker made his free throws at the other end to seal the win.
The Celtics will face Miami Heat in the conference finals.
Game one of that series – Celtics’ third conference finals appearance in the last four seasons – will take place on Tuesday.
Heat reached the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2014 with a 4-1 series win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Raptors had come back from 2-0 down to tie the series against Celtics at 3-3, but VanVleet’s 20 points were not enough to help them to victory.
“I tip my hat to Toronto. They’re the defending champs and they have a lot of heart,” Tatum said.
“They made us earn that. I think we responded after almost being up 3-0, then tied 2-2. It was big and I think it’s going to help us moving forward.”
