MIAMI — Jayson Tatum wore a purple and gold No. 24 armband in honor of his hero, Kobe Bryant, and by the end of the night had collected the trophy named after someone closer to the color uniform he was wearing – Larry Bird, new namesake of the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award.
Despite one of the ugliest stretches of basketball in the series in the fourth quarter, the Celtics barely crawled out of Miami with a 100-96 win, earning the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals since 2010.
Tatum finished with 26 hard-earned points to go along with 24 each from Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart. They needed every drop, barely offsetting a 35-point explosion by Jimmy Butler.