The Miami Heat have done it to the Boston Celtics once again in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.
The Heat blew a sizable lead before closing on a 17-7 run to beat the Celts, 106-101. The strong finish comes two days after Miami erased a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Celtics, 117-114 in overtime.
The rally began after Boston went on a 15-2 spurt and took a 94-89 lead, capped by a 3-pointer from Kemba Walker with 4:25 remaining.
The Heat were down by 17 in the second quarter and trailed by 13 at halftime before outscoring the Celtics, 37-17 in the third period. Miami had been 0-21 in playoff games when trailing by at least that many at intermission.
Goran Dragic scored 25 points for the Heat, who are 10-1 this postseason. Bam Adebayo led a big third-quarter rally to finish with 21.
Walker had 23 points for Boston, which got 21 apiece from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
The Heat took a 2-0 series lead for the 11th time in coach Erik Spoelstra’s (SPOEHL’-struhz) tenure. They’ve won all previous 10 instances.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are in the Stanley Cup final for the third time in team history and the first time since 2015 following a 2-1 win over the Islanders in overtime.
Anthony Cirelli ended it at 13:18 of the extra session. Cirelli took a shot that hit the goalpost, slid across the goal line and banked off the left leg of netminder Semyon Varlamov (SEHM'-yahn vahr-LAH'-mahv).
Varlamov was otherwise superb, keeping the Isles in the game with 46 saves.
The first two goals came in the first 6 ½ minutes. Devon Toews (deh-VAHN tayvz) gave the Isles a lead that lasted a little more than two minutes, when Victor Hedman tied it up.
Andrei Vasilevskiy (va-sih-LEHV'-skee) stopped 26 shots for the Lightning, who will take on the Dallas Stars.
Winged Foot usually is an untameable beast for golfers at the U.S. Open. That hasn’t been the case so far as a handful of golfers went into the clubhouse at 3-under or better in the opening round.
With soft conditions for the start of the major, Justin Thomas shot a 65 for the lowest round ever in a U.S. Open at the Westchester County, New York, course. Thomas finished with a 25-foot birdie putt for one-shot lead over Matthew Wolff Patrick Reed and Thomas Pieters.
Play was suspended by darkness with three players on the course.
Rory McIlroy, Louis Ousthuizen (WUHST’-hy-zehn) and Lee Westwood are two off the pace.
Only two players have finished under par there in five previous Opens at Winged Foot: Fuzzy Zoeller (ZEH’-lur) and Greg Norman in 1984.
Among other notables, Tiger Woods finished with a double-bogey for a 73. PGA champion Collin Morikawa shot 40 on the back nine for a 76. Phil Mickelson opened with two birdies before imploding, carding a 79 that leaves him just one shot out of last place.
The Chicago White Sox have clinched their first postseason berth since 2008.
Eloy (EE’-loy) Jiménez hit a tiebreaking double that capped a two-run rally in the seventh inning of the White Sox’s 4-3 win over the Twins. José Abreu (ah-BRAY’-oo) homered and drove in the tying run with an infield single, giving him a major league-leading 51 RBIs.
Byron Buxton homered twice for Minnesota, giving him seven in his last nine games and 12 this season.
Chicago took three of four from Minnesota to open a three-game lead over the second-place Twins in the AL Central. The White Sox are assured of no worse than a wild-card berth.
The Yankees hit five run home runs in an inning for the first time in their history, doing it in a 10-7 win versus the Blue Jays. Brett Gardner, DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit homered on consecutive pitches in the fourth inning before Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres went deep to put the Yanks ahead, 9-2.
Michael Perez doubled and scored during a two-run seventh inning that pushed the Rays past the Orioles, 3-1 in Game 1 of a douleheader. Tampa Bay starter Blake Snell allowed two hits in 5 1/3 innings, but his only walk came around to score.
The Rays completed a sweep and clinched a playoff berth with a 10-6 win against Baltimore in Game 2. Willy Adames (ah-DAH’-mehs), Hunter Renfroe and Joey Wendle homered before Tampa Bay put together a four-run fifth inning to take a 10-6 lead.
Framber Valdez tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts in 6 1/3 solid innings to pitch the Astros to a 2-1 win against the Rangers. Kyle Tucker gave the Astros a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer to right in the second.
The Indians’ eight-game losing streak is over after Jose Ramirez homered twice on his 28th birthday to lead the offense in a 10-3 thumping of the Tigers. Shane Bieber struck out 10 and became the majors’ first eight-game winner of the season, blanking Detroit until Willi Castro hit a three-run homer in the eighth to chase the Cleveland ace.
Anthony Rendon (rehn-DOHN’) smacked a two-run homer and Mike Trout collected two RBIs in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Diamondbacks. David Fletcher and Taylor Ward had three hits apiece for the Angels, who jumped to a 6-0 lead in the third inning of their ninth win in 14 games.
Corey Seager was 3-for-5 with a homer and Edwin Rios also went deep as the Dodgers battered the Rockies, 9-3. Mookie Betts had an RBI single and scored on a wild pitch a six-run seventh inning that put the NL West leaders ahead, 8-2.
The Marlins are three games off the NL East lead after Nathan Eovaldi (eh-VAHL'-dee) shut them out over five innings of the Red Sox’s 5-3 victory. Rafael Devers (DEH’-vurz) slammed a three-run homer, Kevin Plawecki (plah-WEH’-kee) provided a two-run single and Alex Verdugo (vur-DOO’-goh) had three hits for Boston.
Brandon Nimmo (NIH'-moh) had a two-RBI tying triple in the sixth inning and hit the go-ahead solo homer in the ninth to lead the Mets to a 10-6 win over the Phillies. Bryce Harper homered twice for the Phils, who led 6-3 before losing for the fifth time in six games.
Pittsburgh’s eight-game losing streak is over after Steven Brault pitched a two-hitter for his first career complete game to lead the Pirates’ 5-1 verdict over the Cardinals. Gregory Polanco hit a three-run homer against St. Louis, which dropped to third place in the NL Central and 6 1/2 games behind the division-leading Cubs.
Wilmer Flores hit a go-ahead, two-run triple in the seventh inning of the Giants’ 6-4 win over the Mariners. JP Crawford hit a two-run single in the second following RBI singles by Tim Lopes and Phillip Ervin, but Seattle’s bullpen couldn’t hold a three-run lead.
The Mariners’ upcoming series against the Padres has been relocated to San Diego due to air quality concerns in the Seattle area.
Seattle will be the home team for all three games of the series that begins Friday night.
With the move, the Mariners have three home game remaining on their schedule beginning next Monday against Houston.
Five MLB games have now been moved due to wildfires.
Phillies right-hander Jake Arrieta (ehr-ee-ET’-uh) will not pitch again in the regular season because of a strained right hamstring suffered in his last start against the Mets on Tuesday. Manager Joe Girardi said Arrieta could return to the rotation if the Phillies make the playoffs.
Mets ace Jacob deGrom is day-to-day after leaving his start Wednesday night after just two innings with a right hamstring spasm. Manager Luis Rojas said deGrom played catch without pain on Thursday.
The Cleveland Browns have picked up their first win under new coach Kevin Stefanski.
Nick Chubb ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns as the Browns outscored the Bengals, 35-30. Baker Mayfield threw for two touchdowns, including a 43-yard scoring pass to Odell Beckham Jr. in the first half.
Bengals quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow threw three TD passes and showed incredible poise in just his second game. His third scoring strike was a nine-yard to Tyler Boyd with 43 seconds left, getting Cincinnati within five before Cleveland recovered the ensuing onside kick.
Health officials are telling 10 fans who attended last week’s Kansas City Chiefs game to quarantine after one fan tested positive for COVID-19.
Kansas City health officials announced Thursday that a fan who watched the game from a group’s box tested positive the next day. The group was seated in the lower level of the stadium.
The Titans won’t have fans at their home opener Sunday against Jacksonville, but that will change in October and increase with each of their next three home games. Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced Thursday the Titans will be able to have up to 10% of capacity at Nissan Stadium, or about 7,000 fans, on Oct. 4 against Pittsburgh.
The Jets’ struggling offense could be without wide receiver Jamison Crowder against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Coach Adam Gase said Crowder would sit out practice today with a hamstring injury, leaving his availability for the game uncertain.
The Pac-12 university presidents and chancellors will meet Friday and be presented options for staging a fall football season.
A day after the Big Ten changed course from its decision to postpone fall sports because of the pandemic and set a late October start for football, the Pac-12 appeared headed toward a similar move. However, Commissioner Larry Scott says a vote by the CEO Group is not expected.
The Mountain West is trying to do the same and there even is some movement in the Mid-American Conference toward reconsidering a fall season.
In other college football news:
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office says her requirement that athletes wear masks applies to Big Ten football in Michigan. However, a face shield will suffice for players and the administration is open to potentially changing the order. Her office said it will talk to the conference about the mandate, which covers organized sports in which athletes cannot keep distance “except for occasional and fleeting moments.”
Saturday’s football game between No. 12 North Carolina and Charlotte has been canceled after the 49ers announced that contact tracing had depleted the offensive line.
National tournaments will have fewer teams and fewer sites for preliminary rounds under the NCAA Division I Council’s proposal for fall sports that were pushed to the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The council approved recommendations from the spring sports’ competition committees on Wednesday and will forward them to the Division I Board of Governors for approval.
For team sports, the field for national tournaments will be reduced to 75% of the normal number of teams.
The Fed Cup is changing its name to honor tennis great Billie Jean King. The Billie Jean King Cup will become the first major global team competition to be named after a woman.
International Tennis Federation President David Haggerty calls the move “long overdue.”
The 76-year-old American’s lifelong battle for equality and social justice laid the foundation for generations that followed.
The number of fans allowed to attend the upcoming French Open has been reduced to 5,000 per day amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The French Tennis Federation had initially planned for 11,500 spectators spread over three courts for the clay-court major, which starts Sept. 27. That number was reduced following consultation with authorities.
Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has broken Sergey Bubka’s 26-year-old outdoor world record.
Duplantis cleared 6 meters, 15 centimeters today at a meet in Rome with his second attempt, besting Bubka’s mark of 6.14 meters set in July 1994.