Williams has 27, Celtics make 22 3s in Game 7 rout of Bucks

BOSTON (AP) — In the fog of the Celtics’ Game 5 loss to Milwaukee that dropped his team into a 3-2 series hole, Boston coach Ime Udoka made a prediction.

“It’ll make it sweeter when we bounce back,” he said.

Two wins later, the Celtics turned their coach’s prophecy into reality.

Grant Williams scored a career-high 27 points and hit seven 3-pointers, Jayson Tatum added 23 and Boston set a Game 7 record with 22 3-pointers to eliminate the NBA champion Bucks 109-81 on Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Celtics will face top-seeded Miami beginning Tuesday in a rematch of the 2020 East finals. The Heat beat the Celtics in six games in that series at Walt Disney World.

Tatum said his team embraced the “backs against the wall” moments it faced in having to win the final two games after their late collapse in their previous home game.

“As much as it hurt to lose Game 5, I was looking forward to that challenge,” Tatum said. “I believe in myself, I believe in this team. I expected to play the way I did and for us to respond the way we did.”

The Celtics trailed early in Game 7 before outscoring the Bucks 61- 38 in the second half to cruise to the victory. Boston used a whopping 54-point advantage from behind the arc to improve to 25-9 in decisive seventh games.

The Bucks are now 3-9. They went 4 for 33 (12.1%) from the 3-point line. That’s the second-worst 3-point percentage in a playoff game ever (minimum 30 attempts).

Williams was timid early, missing 5 of his first 7 3-point attempts. It was a pep talk he got from Jaylen Brown during a timeout after Williams passed on a open shot that changed his mindset.

“For me it was like, they're encouraging it, I might as well take advantage,” Williams said. “Each one as...