BOSTON (AP) – Isaiah Thomas scored 29 points and had 12 assists, Kelly Olynyk scored a career-playoff high 26 points and the Boston Celtics used a big fourth quarter to outlast the Washington Wizards 115-105 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night.
Boston advances to the Eastern Conference finals, where it will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 on Wednesday.
The Wizards managed to stay with the Celtics through the first half, and took a 55-53 lead into the locker room, but Boston pulled ahead in the third quarter, and outscored Washington 30 – 26 in the final quarter to finish off the Wiz.
Led by Olynyk, the Celtics got a huge lift from their bench, outscoring their Wizards’ counterparts 48-5. Boston also connected on 11 3-pointers, including 8 of 13 in the second half.
Bradley Beal led the Wizards, which was playing it its first Game 7 since 1979 with 38 points, including 24 in the second half.
“I don’t care how well I played,” Beal said afterward. “I don’t care if I played bad. The end result…The only thing that matters is getting a win.”
Otto Porter added 20 points. John Wall and Markieff Morris each finished with 18. But Washington also had 15 turnovers, leading to 17 Celtics’ points.
“It’s tough. We came out here Game 7 and gave everything we had. Just came up short,” Wall said. “Our goal was to get to Eastern Conference finals and we came up one game short. So it’s a not a satisfied season to me.”
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