Miami Heat are within one win of the NBA finals after a comfortable 128-102 victory over the Boston Celtics in game three of the Eastern Conference finals.<\/span><\/p>\n The Heat lead 3-0 in the best-of-seven series. thanks to 29 points from point guard Gabe Vincent, and host game four on Tuesday (01:30 BST Wednesday).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The winners will face either the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Lakers. <\/span><\/p>\n The Nuggets are 3-0 up in the Western Conference finals with game four on Monday (01:30 BST Tuesday).<\/span><\/p>\n Vincent had six three-pointers while Duncan Robinson and Caleb Martin added 22 and 18 respectively off the bench after veteran Kevin Love was forced out early in the game with an ankle injury.<\/span><\/p>\n Star forward Jimmy Butler had a relatively quiet night with 16 points as the Heat, who are aiming to become only the second eighth-seeded team to reach the finals, dominated at both ends of the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n They ended a fast-paced, physical first quarter with a 9-2 scoring run to lead 30-22 and pushed their advantage to 22 points in the second quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n Although Boston managed to cut the gap, they struggled from three-point range – Jayson Tatum made just one of his seven three-point attempts and Jaylen Brown missed all seven of his – and with turnovers, they trailed 61-46 at the break for their biggest half-time post-season deficit this year.<\/span><\/p>\n There was no way back for the Celtics after that with Miami taking a 93-63 lead into the fourth, the shell-shocked Celtics going more than three minutes in the third period without scoring.<\/span><\/p>\n “I don’t know if surprised is the word,” Vincent said about the one-sided result. “We played well tonight. We defended. We made shots. We forced them into turnovers.<\/span><\/p>\n “The next game, the mentality is to come out and compete at a high level, defend, try to make the right read every time offensively and just play good basketball.<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s the first to four games. We are not satisfied with three.”<\/span><\/p>\n Boston’s Brown said: “I don’t even know where to start. I feel like we let our fan base, organisation down, we let ourselves down, and it was collective. We could point fingers, but in reality, it was just embarrassing.”<\/span><\/p>\n
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