The Boston Celtics - who were in 11th place in the East in January! - are one win away from the NBA Finals.
For the first time this series a team has won two consecutive games in a row following the Celtics' 93-80 win over the Heat in Miami, and a third consecutive win will see Boston reach its first NBA Finals since 2010.
The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum's near triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, while Jaylen Brown had 25 points and four rebounds of his own in the win.
MORE: Live updates from Boston's emphatic Game 5 win in Miami
The Heat struggled shooting the ball in Game 5 - they connected on just 31.9 percent from the field, and only four players scored in double digits, led by Bam Adebayo's 18 points.
The series now returns to Boston for an important Game 6. Can the C's close out at home, or will they have to travel back to South Beach for a deciding Game 7?
Here are three things to watch in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Celtics' close-out record
The Celtics can close out a series.
Granted their first-round series against the Nets was a sweep, but they didn't take their foot off the pedal in that series, closing it out on the Nets' home floor.
It was a little tougher for them against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, but after going down 3-2, they won a crucial Game 6 at Fiserv Forum before dispatching the Bucks quite easily back in Boston for Game 7, 109-81.
Basically, when they've had a chance to close out a series, they've done so.
The Heat's starters
The Heat struggled shooting the ball in Game 5. Again.
In Game 4, Kyle Lowry, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo combined to score a total of 18 points in the Heat's loss.
They were outscored by the Heat's Victor Oladipo who had 23 points off the bench for Miami.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, it's the first playoff game since 1970-71 that a player from a team's bench finished with more points than the entire starting lineup.
That scoring number from Miami's starting five improved (slightly) for Game 5 - they had 42 points combined - but if they are to win Game 6 on the road and send this back to South Beach for a deciding Game 7, they will need a better scoring output from all of the above.
They shot 32 percent in Game 5, off the back of a 33 percent shooting night in Game 4 and were just 7-of-45 from long range on Wednesday night. Game 5 marked the first time all season that the Heat failed to crack the 100-point mark in two consecutive games.
The Heat are battling injuries to a lot of those above-mentioned guys, and they are still without Tyler Herro (for now) who is out with a groin issue.
If Herro can't play and the starting unit is ineffective offensively, who will step and shoulder that burden?
Do the Heat have that guy outside their main rotation?
Both these teams have had to battle injuries to players this series, but with Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III both returning for Game 5, the Celtics, after being without at least one player in the first four games of this series, finally had their complete roster available to them in Game 5.
That's not a good sign for the Heat.
''We are not going to make any kind of deflection or any kind of excuse,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ''Boston beat us tonight. And let's be clear about that. There's guys that are far from 100% on both sides.''
Robert Williams III
Having a healthy Williams really changes the dynamic of this Celtics team defensively.
It's no coincidence that the one game Williams missed is the sole game that Bam Adebayo was able to feast - Adebayo scored 31 points in Game 3. That remains his highest point total of the series, and not including Game 5, it was the most he'd scored than the other games combined.
Just look at this particular play from Game 5 to see the affect Williams has defensively.
Robert Williams III with an incredible closeout and block.
— NBA (@NBA) May 26, 2022
Game 5 Live Now on ESPN pic.twitter.com/cXMQpPTfPK
He's finally healthy and will be a problem that the Heat need to solve in Game 6.
