LOS ANGELES, United States — Luka Doncic led
a stunning
Dallas Mavericks rout of the top-seeded Phoenix Suns while the
Boston Celtics eliminated the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks on a day of
NBA playoff upsets on Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
In
Phoenix, Slovenian superstar Doncic led a total
eclipse of the Suns as Dallas clinched a 4–3 series victory with an
extraordinary 123–90 thrashing of the Western Conference favorites.
The Suns had entered the playoffs boasting the best
record in basketball after a 64-win regular season and were tipped by many to
return to the
NBA Finals for a second straight season.
But the Suns’ dreams of a championship were
incinerated by a red-hot shooting performance from Doncic and the Mavs, who
will now advance to a Western Conference finals showdown with the Golden State
Warriors starting on Wednesday.
Doncic finished with 35 points, 10 rebounds and four
assists while team-mate Spencer Dinwiddie provided scoring support with 30
points, including five three-pointers.
Jalen Brunson also posted double figures while
Phoenix were left pondering a no-show by their two stars Devin Booker (11
points) and Chris Paul (10).
The Mavericks led from start to finish and at one
stage in the second half had sprinted into a 46-point lead.
Their 57–27 half-time lead was the biggest ever in a
decisive game seven in the NBA playoffs.
“Amazing,” Doncic said. “I don’t know what to say
but this was amazing to win.
“Everybody played as hard as they can. We didn’t
have any days off. An incredible team win. I don’t have nothing more to say.”
Phoenix coach
Monty Williams said his team had saved
their worst performance of the season for their most important game.
“I just told them how badly I hurt for them,”
Williams told reporters shortly after addressing his team.”
“I know they didn’t want to play that way. We
basically played our worst game of the season tonight. I know how bad they
wanted it, they just could not execute tonight, could not make a shot early
on.”
“And that messed with us a little bit, and Dallas
played their tails off from start to finish.”
“It’s a part of manhood. There are days when it doesn’t
go your way and you’ve got to stand there and show character and integrity and
take it. That’s life.”
Williams stuns Bucks
There was a similar sense of deflation amongst the Bucks players after
their reign as NBA champions ended in a convincing 109-81 game seven defeat to
the Celtics in
Boston.
Celtics forward
Grant Williams produced a deadly display of scoring from three-point range at
the TD Garden as Boston advanced to a conference finals showdown with the Miami
Heat with a 4–3 series win.
Williams’s
shooting from beyond the arc was emblematic of Boston’s superiority from the
field as the Bucks missed a slew of wide-open looks.
Bucks star
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 25 points, 20 rebounds, and nine assists
for Milwaukee.
But the Celtics’
three-point shooting accuracy proved the difference between the two teams as
Boston completed a comeback from 3-2 down in the best-of-seven series.
Boston dropped 22
of 55 from downtown, in stark contrast to Milwaukee, who converted just four of
33 attempts from beyond the arc.
Williams led the
three-point blitzkrieg with seven threes in his 27-point haul. Jayson Tatum
made five-of-nine threes to finish with 23 points.
Payton Pritchard
also got in on the act, with four three-pointers from the bench in a tally of
14 points.
Only one
Milwaukee player,
Bobby Portis, made multiple three-pointers. Portis finished
with two in his 10-point haul.
Celtics coach Ime
Udoka revealed he had encouraged Williams to shoot more aggressively,
suggesting the Bucks had “disrespected” the forward by allowing him so much
room to operate.
“I told him let
it fly. I said ‘They’re disrespecting you more tonight than earlier in the
series,’” Udoka said.
Williams said he
was only too happy to accept the challenge.
“Everyone kept
saying ‘Let it fly, keep shooting’. So I thought ‘All right, they’re
encouraging it, might as well take advantage.’ It was fun. It was just great
that we got a win,” Williams said.
Milwaukee coach
Mike Budenholzer made no excuses for the defeat, saying Boston had been the
better team over the series.
“I couldn’t be
prouder of our team,” Budenholzer said. “We’ve had a lot of success together
and tonight we hit a wall and met our end.”
Boston face top
seeds Miami in game one of the
Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday in a
rematch of their 2020 series.
Miami won that
series 4–2 to advance to the NBA Finals.
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