AP

Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum, centre, dunks against Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, left, and Robert Covington.

The Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers are one win away from the NBA Eastern Conference finals after a thrilling wins on Sunday.

Al Horford scored the go-ahead basket for Boston late in overtime in a wild game three where the Philadelphia 76ers gave away the basketball and the confetti, leading the Celtics to a 101-98 win on Saturday night to go up 3-0 in the series.

LeBron James drilled a fade away floater off the glass to beat the buzzer against the Toronto Raptors, giving his team a 3-0 lead in their series.

AP

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James was exceptional again against the Raptors.

The Celtics go for the sweep on Tuesday (NZT), as do the Cavaliers.

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The ending to regulation in the Celtics-76ers game was about as wild as it gets for both teams. JJ Redick threw away the basketball on an errant pass to no one that was scooped by Terry Rozier who threw to Jaylen Brown for the basket and an 89-87 lead.

AP

Philadelphia 76ers' Robert Covington, centre, goes up for a shot against Boston Celtics' Aron Baynes.

Seconds later, Marco Belinelli stunned everyone with a falling 22-footer in front of the 76ers bench as time expired that sent the game into overtime - and confetti mistakenly blasted from the cannon. There was about a seven-minute delay while team employees scrambled to clean up the mess on the court. Some players even scooped up confetti as everyone waited for the start of overtime.

Belinelli opened OT with a 23-footer and Redick followed with a 3 that appeared to take him off the hook.

But the Celtics wouldn't let them pull away and Horford escaped for a layup with 5.5 seconds that gave Boston a 99-98 lead. Ben Simmons then threw the ball away after a timeout and Horford sealed the win with two free throws.

AP

Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons reacts after scoring against the Boston Celtics at Wells Fargo Center.

In Cleveland, the Raptors overcame a 17-point deficit to level things with eight seconds remaining, locking the scores at 103.

Kyle Lowry was the instigator, scoring 27 points while playing hard, niggly basketball at the defensive end. He and James clashed on more than one occasion. 

But leaving eight seconds on the clock for someone like James to work is too much. James received the inbounds, marched up court and then went towards the rim.

With a subtle step outside, James then threw a floater high into the back board and into the hoop as the clock expired, sinking the Raptors who had fought so hard to come back.

James ended with 38 points in 41 minutes on 14-26 shooting. He also had six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Kevin Love scored 21 while claiming 16 rebounds to provide James with help, while the Raptors were harmed by the poor play of Demar DeRozan who ended with just eight points and didn't take the court in the final quarter.

 - AP