The Miami Heat sealed the deal Wednesday night by suffocating the Boston Celtics down the stretch to win in Miami, 97-87, eliminating the Celtics in five games, while out West, the Oklahoma City Thunder made sure there would be no marathon fifth game by crushing the Memphis Grizzlies in Oklahoma, 99-72, to take a three-games-to-two lead in their series.
Boston led Miami 87-81 with less than five minutes to play, but the Heat closed the game on a 16-0 run to give LeBron James the win that eluded him last year with Cleveland.
Bully for him.
Dwyane Wade scored 34 and James scored 33 — including the last 10 points of the game — to set up an Eastern Conference Finals with either the Atlanta Hawks or the Chicago Bulls.
The Hawks and Bulls play in Atlanta on Thursday night.
Out west, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were both able to sit out the fourth quarter as the Thunder produced a laugher after the epic triple-overtime affair between the Thunder and the Grizzlies on Monday.
After Memphis fought their way to a tie at 17 after 12 minutes, Oklahoma City jumped ahead by eleven at the half at 46-35 and pretty much put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring the Grizzlies 25-17 to lead by 19 entering the final period, and cruising from there.
Game Six in the series will be back in Memphis on Friday night as the Thunder look to move on to a Western Finals date with the well-rested Dallas Mavericks.