The Boston Celtics are one win away from closing out the Miami Heat and advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the third season in a row and seventh time in the past eight seasons. They can get that victory at home at TD Garden on Wednesday night in Game 5.
Both teams will be short-handed for this one. The Heat will be without a number of key players, including Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson, who have not played in the series, and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who was hurt in Game 4. As for the Celtics, they will be missing Kristaps Porzingis, who left Game 4 early as well and has been diagnosed with a calf strain.
Here's everything you need to know about Game 5:
Celtics vs. Heat Game 5
- Date: Wednesday, May 1 | Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Location: TD Garden -- Boston, Massachusetts
- TV channel: TNT | Live stream: TNT app
- Odds: Celtics -14 | O/U 200.5
Storylines
Celtics: Even with Kristaps Porzingis' injury, the outcome of this series is not in doubt. The major question for the Celtics is how quickly they can take care of business in order to gain extra rest for the second round. Their home playoff form has been strangely poor in recent years, including a 5-6 mark last season and a 1-1 start so far this time around. Against the Hawks last season, they let a potential close-out game slip away at home in Game 5 of the first round and had to go back on the road for an extra game. They won't want a repeat of that scenario.
Heat: Jaime Jaquez Jr. has joined the injured list for the Heat, who are now without four of their top-eight scorers from the regular season. They are going to play extremely hard on the defensive end and make life as miserable as possible for the Celtics, but they simply don't have enough firepower to keep up. They've been under 90 points in each of the last two games, and the only time they've cracked 100 in this series is when they made a playoff-record 23 3-pointers in one of the best shooting games in NBA postseason history.
Prediction
Fourteen points is a ridiculous line for a playoff game, but all three of the Celtics' wins in this series have come by at least that many points. There's no real reason to expect anything different in Game 5. Pick: Celtics -14
