Celtics-Heat Eastern Conference Finals Will Tip Off Tuesday Night
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Celtics are back in the Eastern Conference Finals, where they'll face the Miami Heat. At the moment, we know when three of those games will be played.
The series will tip off on Tuesday night, but right now, we only know when Games 1-3 will be played. The NBA is expected to announce the rest of the schedule after the Denver Nuggets and L.A. Clippers wrap up their Western Conference Semifinals late Tuesday.
Here is the Celtics-Heat schedule thus far:
Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 15 -- 6:30 p.m.
Game 2: Thursday, Sept 17 -- 7 p.m.
Game 3: Saturday, Sept. 19 -- 8:30 p.m.
Chances are the NBA will keep its every-other-day schedule, meaning Games 4-7 would be Monday (Sept. 21), Wednesday (Sept. 23), Friday (Sept. 25) and Sunday (Sept. 27). You know, if Games 5-7 are necessary.
The Celtics needed seven games to send the defending champion Toronto Raptors home, while the Heat moved on after dispatching the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the second-round. Like Boston, Miami swept their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers. Miami is 8-1 in the playoffs after going just 3-5 in its seeding games.
One of those seeding-game wins came against the Celtics, a 112-106 victory on Aug. 4 without Jimmy Butler. The Celtics won their two matchups against the Heat during the regular season.
"I know we always think we're going to win every game we play," Jayson Tatum said of the upcoming series. "We didn't come down here just for the first and second rounds. We didn't really pay attention to outside noise, whether we were favorite or not. That doesn't matter to us. It's all about the guys in that locker room. We know what we're capable of, we just got to get out there and do it."
"We're going to just take our time, rest our bodies up, take a few days and get prepared for a great team," added Kemba Walker. "Those guys, they balled last series. Those guys are nothing but players."
