Jayson Tatum had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Jaylen Brown scored 21 and the Boston Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with a 92-87 Game 7 win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night.

Marcus Smart added 16 points and Kemba Walker 14 as the Celtics move on to face the Miami Heat in their third conference finals appearance in the last four seasons.

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Game 1 of the series will take place Tuesday.

Fred VanVleet had 20 points to lead the Raptors, whose title defence came to an end after coming back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the series.

Kyle Lowry had 16 points and Pascal Siakam scored 13 with 11 rebounds.

Toronto turned the ball over 18 times, six coming in the fourth quarter. Still, the Raptors were within 89-87 with 1:21 remaining.

Siakam got a breakaway with a chance to tie, but Smart blocked him from behind, and Lowry fouled out on the other end with 35.4 seconds to go. Celtics rookie Grant Williams missed both free throw chances, but Tatum got fouled on the rebound and hit one of his two for a 90-87 lead.

VanVleet missed a potential game-tying three with 12 seconds left and Walker made his free throws at the other end to ice the game.

Earlier, The Denver Nuggets overcame a 15-point, second-half deficit to stun the Los Angeles Clippers 111-105 in Game 5 of their series.

Paul Millsap scored 14 of his 17 points in the third quarter, while Michael Porter Jr made a late three pointer to secure the victory.

Denver – down 16 in the first half – trailed 61-46 with 9:42 remaining in the third before rallying behind the 35-year-old Millsap.

The Nuggets took their first lead on Nikola Jokic’s three-pointer with 7:06 left and extended it to eight. After the Clippers pulled within a basket, Porter hit a deep three-pointer with 1:11 remaining to all but wrap it up.

Jamal Murray finished with 26 points while Jokic added 22 points and 14 rebounds to help the Nuggets pull to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is on Sunday.

This marked Denver’s fourth elimination-game win of this postseason, the team’s most since capturing six win-or-go-home games during the 1994 playoff run. The Nuggets came back from a 3-1 deficit to win their first-round series against Utah.

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Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points and Paul George added 26 for the Clippers, who are searching for the franchise’s first appearance in a conference finals. They’re 0-6 in games where they could clinch a trip to the conference finals.

Millsap and Marcus Morris jawed at each other face-to-face late in the first half and had to be separated. Morris was given a technical foul.

-AAP