By Field Level Media
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Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 35 points to help the Boston Celtics clinch their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with a 120-89 Game 5 victory on Tuesday night over the visiting Orlando Magic.

Tatum was 10 of 16 from the field and made all 11 of his free-throw attempts while adding eight rebounds and 10 assists as the Celtics wrapped up their first-round series in five games for the second year in a row. Jaylen Brown added 23 points for the Celtics, who outscored the Magic 73-40 in the second half.

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The Magic lost their sixth consecutive first-round series — dating back to 2010-11 — despite 25 points from Franz Wagner. Paolo Banchero collected 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Wendell Carter Jr. added 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Second-seeded Boston took control after Banchero went to the bench after being called for his fifth foul with 9:46 remaining in the third quarter. It was 53-53 at the time, but the Celtics outscored the seventh-seeded Magic 36-13 in the third and owned an 83-62 advantage entering the fourth. Boston had a 24-4 run in the third quarter.

Orlando had a 15-3 edge in offensive rebounds, but shot 8-of-38 from 3-point territory. The Magic shot 37.5 percent from the field in the game (33-of-88).

The Celtics didn’t make a 3-pointer until Tatum connected with 10:22 left in the third quarter, but they made 13-of-24 3-point attempts overall. Boston was 43-of-76 from the field (56.6 percent) in the game.

Boston was again without guard Jrue Holiday, who missed his third straight game with a strained right hamstring.

Orlando was up 27-23 after one quarter and, despite shooting 36.2 percent from the field (17 of 47) through the first two quarters, held a 49-47 halftime lead. Boston missed all six of its 3-point attempts in the first half.

Haliburton rallies Pacers past Bucks to win series

Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points, including the go-ahead layup with 1.4 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Indiana Pacers rallied for a 119-118 win over the Milwaukee Bucks to clinch their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Haliburton jumped onto the scorers’ table and raised his arms toward the crowd to celebrate the wild comeback, which gave Indiana a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven series. The fourth-seeded Pacers advanced to the East’s semifinals, where they will face the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

Indiana trailed 118-111 with 40 seconds remaining in overtime.

They closed the game on an 8-0 run behind a 3-pointer by Andrew Nembhard, a three-point play by Haliburton and finally a driving layup in which Haliburton blew past Giannis Antetokounmpo for the decisive basket.

“There’s a lot of talk about rivalry and those kinds of things,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

“From my perspective and our perspective, nothing but respect for the Bucks. What they threw at us to begin the game and really throughout the game was the thing that champions do. They come out and they throw everything, their heart and soul, into it. We didn’t respond well early. We stayed with it, and we showed the kind of resilience that we’ve really shown all year.”

Antetokounmpo tallied a triple-double with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists for the Bucks, who played their first game without injured guard Damian Lillard (Achilles).

“I feel like we owed this game to Dame. That’s what I felt,” Antetokounmpo said. “I felt like he came back maybe earlier than what he was supposed to, went down, sacrificed his body for us. And I felt like as a team, win or lose, home or road, playoff game or no playoff game, the least we can do is show up and win a game for Dame. Obviously it hurts that we didn’t win the game, but it hurts more that we weren’t able to win the game for Dame and go back to Milwaukee.”

Gary Trent Jr. scored 33 points, including 12 points in overtime. Trent made eight 3-pointers, but his turnover with 10.8 seconds left in OT set up Haliburton’s winning hoop.

Myles Turner finished with 21 points and nine rebounds for the Pacers. Aaron Nesmith scored 19 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and T.J. McConnell scored 18 points off the bench. Haliburton had nine assists.

The score was tied at 103 at the end of regulation. Antetokounmpo had a chance to win the game at the regulation buzzer, but his turnaround jump shot was too strong and clanked off the back rim.

Haliburton helped the Pacers force overtime by scoring Indiana’s final six points of regulation.

“When it comes to belief in himself, Tyrese has an iron will,” Carlisle said. “He works extremely hard on what he does. He works extremely hard on his craft, his skill. He’s unafraid. He reminds me a lot of Reggie. This game will go down as one of the all-time great Pacer wins because of the circumstances in overtime and what was on the line. Ty obviously authored a big part of this ending.”

Milwaukee led 103-99 with 53.1 seconds left after Antetokounmpo made a floating jump shot.

The Pacers closed the gap to 103-101 after Haliburton drew a shooting foul against Antetokounmpo and made a pair of free throws with 39.8 seconds remaining.

After Kevin Porter Jr. missed a shot on the other end, Haliburton again took control.

He drove past Trent from the 3-point arc and elevated for a game-tying dunk with 10.8. seconds left.

The Bucks stormed to a 30-13 lead at the end of the first quarter and held onto a 47-41 advantage at the half.

Pistons edge Knicks to stay alive

Cade Cunningham scored 24 points, Ausar Thompson added 22 and each made a clutch shot in the final two minutes to help the visiting Detroit Pistons avoid elimination in the first round of the playoffs with a gritty 106-103 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 5 on Tuesday.

The Pistons sent the series back to Detroit for Game 6 on Thursday. If the Pistons can win at home for the first time in the series, the teams would return to New York for Game 7 on Saturday.

“We’re hungry, man,” Cunningham said. “We gave both games away at the crib. Our fans did a great job of coming out, giving us a lot of energy. We dropped both of those games. We’re all excited to be able to get back home.”

Tobias Harris added 17 points and Dennis Schroder contributed 14 off the bench for the Pistons, who shot 42.4 percent.

Malik Beasley finished with 10 points while Jalen Duren added nine points and 14 rebounds, including the putback dunk that snapped a 95-95 tie with 3:09 left and a putback that gave the Pistons a 99-95 lead with 2:31 to go.

“I think we did a great job of getting to our spots and executing the stuff we knew we could get to,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “That created an advantage for us. It all started with Ausar and his defense. He was phenomenal defensively tonight (and) offensively to come up with the 22 points, but I think it started with his defense and a lot of credit should be given to him.”

OG Anunoby scored 19 points to lead the Knicks, who still haven’t clinched a series on their home court for the first time since beating the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges finished with 17 apiece, but Jalen Brunson was held to 16 on 4-of-16 shooting as the Knicks shot 43.3 percent and missed 11 of 27 free throws.

“The challenge is to reset,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Every game is different. Take a look at the film and see what we can better.”

Cunningham gave Detroit a 101-95 lead with a difficult floater in the lane with 1:57 left, and Thompson converted a dunk with 27.4 seconds remaining for a 103-97 edge. After those shots, the Pistons survived Bridges hitting a corner 3-pointer with 25.3 seconds to play and Anunoby’s left-side trey over Cunningham with 7.1 seconds left that cut Detroit’s lead to 104-103.

Detroit called its final timeout with 5.7 seconds left and Cunningham put Detroit up three by making two foul shots with 5.4 seconds remaining. After New York’s Miles McBride missed two free throws with 2.6 seconds remaining, the Knicks secured an offensive rebound but could not get off a final shot before the horn sounded.

Towns said, “You expected them to come out desperate and with that energy. The season’s on the line. They hit shots when they had to and got the stops they needed to when they needed to.”

Detroit held a five-point lead after Thompson’s dunk with 4:18 left in the second quarter, but the Knicks recovered to take a 50-49 lead into halftime.