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The Boston Celtics, the defending Eastern Conference champions, nearly escaped the worst-case scenario by winning Game 6 over Trae Young and the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks.
The Celtics gained their first lead since the game's beginning late in the fourth quarter after a wild game that saw 22 lead changes and 15 ties, and they went on to win 128-120 thanks to clutch play from stalwarts Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Al Horford.
The Celtics defeated the Hawks in Game 6 despite a far from ideal rest situation, moving on to the conference semifinals where they will take on the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers. Monday night is the planned time for Game 1.
Brown led the squad with 32 points scored. Tatum contributed 30 more points, a team-best 14 rebounds, and seven assists. Both players scored 30 points in the same game for the second time in the series and in their postseason careers in Game 6. When both surpass 30 points, Boston is presently 23-1 overall (including the regular season).
Young led the Hawks with 30 points, while five other players, including De'Andre Hunter (20 points), had double-digit scoring games. Dejounte Murray contributed 14 points and 11 assists after just serving his Game 5 suspension. Young missed 12 of 13 attempts in the second half after scoring 25 points in the first.
In the opening three and a half minutes of the game, Smart scored nine points and contributed with five assists to the Celtics' 14-4 lead. The Hawks could have left right then and there, but they persisted as they did throughout the entire series. Midway through the first quarter, Atlanta had a 19-18 lead thanks to Young's first of four 3-pointers, which gave Atlanta their first lead shift of the game.
The score stayed within five points on each side for all but 18 seconds from the 7:17 mark in the first quarter until Tatum's put-back dunk with two minutes remaining in the fourth.
The Hawks led 100-98 after three quarters owing to their 21 points on 11 offensive rebounds (eight from Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu), but the Celtics finished the game with a team shooting percentage of 50/43/94. The fourth quarter marked the first time either side scored fewer than 30 points in any quarter as Boston turned up its defense and held the Hawks to 20 points. In the fourth, Young went 0 for 7 from the field.
When injured Sixers star Joel Embiid was listed as questionable for the second round and the Miami Heat shockingly took control of their first-round series against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks on the other side of the East bracket, the conference seemed to be going Boston's way earlier in the week.
Despite winning the series on Thursday, Philadelphia, a team the Celtics have dominated in the playoffs twice in the previous five years, tested Boston's greatest anxieties in Game 6. The Hawks' big men dominated the glass against Boston's smaller lines, their guards constantly hounded the 36-year-old Horford, and Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla's squad frequently lost concentration. This is Joe Mazzulla's first season in charge of the team.
Regarding the Sixers, Mazzulla said, "Not much different from this series." They have two All-Star players, a strong bench, and a fantastic coach. It will be really challenging, and I anticipate that our soldiers will simply continue fighting. Those are issues for a different day. The Celtics averted their worst first-round scenario. Barely.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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