Basketball: The defending champion and the runner-up eliminated in the NBA

Defending champion and runner up out! Milwaukee did not survive Game 7 in Boston, which will face Miami in the Eastern Conference final, nor did Phoenix, totally liquefied against Dallas and Luka Doncic, who will challenge Golden State in the West.

History did not speak in favor of the Bucks: the three times they had faced the Celtics in a seventh game, they had lost: in the final of the 1974 championship (at the time, the Wisconsin franchise was part of the West), in the 1987 Eastern Conference Semifinals and in the 2018 First Round.

The fourth confrontation was no exception to the rule. And for the first time in this tight series, there was no photo (109-81). Driven by a molten TD Garden, Boston, who had more under their feet, managed to make the difference on long-range shots.

Untenable, the “C’s” hit the mark 22 times (in 55 attempts), the Bucks finding the target only 4 times (out of 33). Never before has a team made so many award-winning baskets in a No 7 match.

Grant Williams, hardly accustomed to scoring so much, was a sharp second knife like never before (27 pts, 7/18 behind the arc), achieving the best game of his career there. In his wake, Jayson Tatum (23 pts, 8 assists) and Jaylen Brown (19 pts, 8 rebounds) responded.

After a first quarter in favor of the Bucks (26-20), the Celtics picked up the pace and never eased off. Their defensive selflessness also got the better of the efforts of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who only shot 10/26, finishing all the same with 25 points, 20 rebounds and 9 assists. Jrue Holiday (21 pts, 8 assists) and Brook Lopez (15 pts, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks) supported him, but not the rest of the team and the absence of Khris Middleton (knee) to make one last times terribly felt.

In the West, and it’s also a surprise, even bigger, given the fact that Dallas remained on nine defeats in Phoenix, the Mavs crushed and humiliated the Suns (123-90), completely missing out on this 7th decisive match, paralyzed by the stakes.

The best regular season team, which many thought was the most collectively armed for the title, simply “delivered its worst performance for its most important game”, lamented coach Monty Williams. And opposite, Luka Doncic was still exceptional (35 pts, at 12/19, 10 rebounds) for the biggest meeting of his young career, which necessarily calls for others at 23 years old.

The Slovenian prodigy had 27 points at the break, as many as the Suns, then trailing by 30 units, making him the first player in 25 years to equal or exceed an opposing team’s single-period point total in a game. of play-off.

Meanwhile, total eclipses for Devin Booker and Chris Paul, unable to score a basket during these first 24 minutes, excluding free throws. They finished with 11 and 10 points. Also worn by Spencer Dinwiddie (30 pts, at 11/15), on a cloud coming off the bench, and Jalen Brunson (24 pts), the Mavs shot at 58.7% success and counted up to 46 points. ‘advance. Overwhelming figures that illustrated the debacle of the Suns.

Dallas will challenge the Warriors of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (champions in 2015, 2017, 2018), to try to reconnect with the final, eleven years after their only coronation obtained against Miami.