BOSTON — The Boston Celtics won game 7 Sunday afternoon 109-81 to knock off the Milwaukee Bucks and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. As for the defending champs, they fall in a blowout fashion—the NBA will now see a new champion this year. 

Grant Williams was the hero of the game. He led the Celtics in points—finishing with 27 points and hitting seven 3-pointers in 18 attempts. 

“Grant played great tonight,” said Jayson Tatum who finished with 23 points. “He took more shots than anybody on the team. I think that’s a first… I told him don’t get used to that. Obviously tonight we needed that… in the playoffs you need that.”

It’s fair to say this series has been a back and forth, but safe to say, nobody expected a blowout in this game 7. The Celtics scored a combined 61 points in the second half. Jaylen Brown finished with 19 points on eight rebounds. 

A big help came off the bench for the Celtics in Payton Pritchard. He got in his bag hitting three’s, grabbing rebounds, and defending. Pritchard finished with 14 points. 

As for the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo visibly looked fatigued. Nonetheless, the Greek Freak finished with 25 points, 20 rebounds, and nine assists. The Celtics were able to stop the downhill drives they were accustomed of seeing throughout the entire series. It was a valiant effort from the MVP, but his teammates just couldn’t hold up the weight.

Simply put, the rest of the Bucks didn’t hit shots. Milwaukee shot a poor 12% from deep and 36.7% from the field. The Bucks only hit four 3-pointers compared to the Celtics 22 deep three’s made. Jrue Holiday finished with 21 points, but with the absence of Khris Middleton, who was out this entire season, Milwaukee needed more out of him. 

The Celtics will now face the Miami Heat Tuesday night. Miami will have home out advantage throughout this entire series. It’s likely Robert Williams will be back in the lineup for game 1.