The Boston Celtics, for which the Ukrainian plays Svyatoslav Mikhailyuk, reached the finals of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
This happened thanks to Boston's confident victory over the Indiana Pacers in the final playoff series of the Eastern Conference. Mikhailyuk's team beat the opponent with a score of 4:0 after four meetings.
Boston Celtics reach the NBA Finals
In the series against the Pacers, the Ukrainian took part in only one match. Svyatoslav entered the floor in the second meeting, played more than a minute and scored three points, hitting the basket from behind the arc.
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In the fourth game of the series, the Boston Celtics won a road victory over the Indiana Pacers with a score of 105:102. Thus, Mykhailyuk became the first Ukrainian in history to win the NBA Eastern Conference.
In history, Svyatoslav became the second Ukrainian to reach the NBA finals with his team. Previously, Stanislav Medvedenko played in the NBA finals, who twice won titles with the Los Angeles Lakers (2001, 2002) and lost the 2004 finals.
That is, the last time a Ukrainian basketball player played in the NBA finals was 20 years ago.
During the 2023/24 season, Mikhailyuk played for Boston in 41 regular season matches and five playoff matches.
In the NBA finals, Boston will play with the winner of the pair Dallas Mavericks — Minnesota Timberwolves. Now the score in the final series is 3:0 in favor of the Mavericks.
