The Boston Celtics look to get a step closer to making history Saturday night when they take on the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals at Kaseya Center.
But as the Heat look to hold off the charging Celtics, who have won two straight games by double digits to trail, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series, Miami got what could be seen as good news with the refereeing assignments for the pivotal matchup.
According to the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman, Zach Zarba, Josh Tiven and James Williams will be the on-court officials for Game 6. And why should that trio send a scare into Celtics fans? Well, the Heat are 5-0 this postseason when that crew referees their games while the Celtics are 3-5, per 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Dan Lifshatz.
Who knows if the officiating will even have an impact on the outcome of the contest, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the free-throw disparity even out after the Celtics recorded 19 more attempts from the charity stripe combined over the last two games.
That might not be the only reason for confidence from the Heat, who have only lost once on their home floor this postseason, coming in Game 4 of the conference finals with the Celtics avoiding a sweep. The Heat also are expected to get back starting guard Gabe Vincent, who sat out Game 5 with an ankle sprain and has shot 50% from 3-point range in the series.
It certainly won’t be an easy feat for the Celtics to force a winner-take-all Game 7 back in Boston on Monday, but they are 4-0 in elimination games thus far in the playoffs. Tipoff for Game 6 is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET.
