MIAMI (AP) — The Celtics were within a tenth of a second of elimination. Miami was that same breath away from advancing to the NBA Finals.
Derrick White made all the difference.
He grabbed a rebound and a layup on the same jump late in the game as Boston moved one win away from the biggest comeback in NBA history, beating the Heat 104-103 on Saturday to force a seventh game of the Eastern final.
“He came like a bolt of lightning from who knows where and saved the day,” said Jaylen Brown, one of the Boston stars. “It was an incredible play.”
White knew he had made the basket on time. The referees reviewed the video, but it didn’t take long to make two things official:
The Boston jubilant. The devastation of Miami.
“I’m just glad we won at all costs,” White said. “The ball came to me and I made the shot.”
Maybe Boston will end up calling the play just like that, like “the Shot.”
White is the second player in NBA history to beat the buzzer when his team was on the brink of elimination. The other was Michael Jordan, with “the Shot” against Cleveland in 1989.
“I’m happy,” White said. “The campaign was over. We didn’t want to go home eliminated.”
Jayson Tatum scored 31 points, Brown added 26 and Marcus Smart finished with 21 for the Celtics, who are just the fourth team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a four-win series in NBA history to force a game. decisive.
The other teams that are part of that elite are the 1951 New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, the 1994 Denver Nuggets in the second round, and the 2003 Portland Trail Blazers in the first round.
But all those teams lost the seventh game, visiting.
The Celtics, instead, go to Boston for their appointment with history. Game 7 is scheduled for Monday night, and will define the Western Conference champion, which will face the Denver Nuggets.
The Finals begin on Thursday.
“It’s a seven-game series,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “There is nothing better than the seventh games.”
Jimmy Butler made three free throws with three seconds remaining to give the Heat a one-point lead. This crowned a reaction from Miami, which was losing by 10 points with less than 4 minutes remaining.
The Celtics arranged for White to serve on the final drive of the game. He sent the ball to Smart, who missed the 3-pointer, making it seem like the game and the series were over.
Somehow, White managed to run from the line to the rim. The ball fell into his hands, to be deposited in the basket just as time ran out.
“These guys just showed resilience,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “That was it”.
Mazzulla was asked what was going through his mind at that moment.
“Nothing,” he replied. “The seventh game”.
2023-05-28 05:14:01
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