Nigerian Ime Udoka on Tuesday led the Boston Celtics to the second round of the 2022 NBA Play-offs with a 116-114 win over the Brooklyn Nets in the Eastern Conference to win 4-0 in a seven game series.
The Celtics, known for their impenetrable defence, held off two of the best players in the NBA – Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving – to win the first round play-offs game despite missing the services of influential centre Robert Williams.
Celtics will play either champions Milwaukee Bucks or the Chicago Bulls but Udoka says his boys are not scared of any team, including the Bucks, who have one of the best players in Greek-Nigerian Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“The overall message that I’m going to give to the team and that they replied back to me is — we’re not scared of anybody, we’re not going to run from anybody,” Udoka said after the win.
“If you’re going to win, you’ve got to go through certain teams at certain times anyway, so might as well get a really good test early, and I think it’ll help us going down the line.”
Toronto Raptors forward, Precious Achiuwa, also impressed in his side’s 103-88 win over the Philadelphia 76ers to drag the seven-game series to game six in Toronto.
Achiuwa scored 17 points from the bench, adding seven rebounds in the win in 27 minutes from the bench.
With home court advantage in their next game, Achiuwa believes they’ll put on a show and send the tie into game seven.
“We’re coming home. Y’all know what time it is. I need everybody locked in and we’re going to put on a show when we come back home.”
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