Derrick White scooped in a missed shot just before the buzzer sounded on Saturday night, lifting the Boston Celtics to a dramatic 104-103 win over the Miami Heat in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Kaseya Center in Miami. After trailing 3-0 in the series, Boston has now become the fourth team all-time in NBA postseason history to come back and force a decisive seventh game in that position, and they’ll do so on their home court on Monday night.
It was back and forth for a majority of the first quarter, until Boston used a late 9-1 run and a Marcus Smart three-pointer extended their lead to 29-21 as it was 34-29 Celtics at the end of 12 minutes. The guests led the entire second period by as many as 11 which was the largest of the first half on a driving layup by Jayson Tatum at 52-41. Caleb Martin would cut the Miami deficit to a pair with two free throws, as the Heat would head to the halftime break trailing 57-53.
After a closely contested third quarter, Boston would take their largest lead of the game in the later moments with a 9-0 run capped off by a pair of Jaylen Brown free throws at 78-65 with 3:27 left. The C’s headed to the fourth up 79-72. Miami came charging back and a tip in layup by Jimmy Butler would give them their first lead since it was 11-9 at 83-82 with 7:57 left to play. Brown restored the Celtics lead on the next possession on a layup at the rim in which he was fouled on the play by Bam Adebayo. Adebayo was also called for goaltending and got a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Brown hit the free throw and the technical foul shot to push his team back into the lead 86-83. Their advantage was extended back to 10 on a three point play by Smart with 4:56 remaining. Butler, who really struggled shooting the ball on the night, came up with a big three-pointer with 2:04 to go to slice the Miami margin to 100-96. Butler and Brown both went 1-2 at the line over the next 1:03, before Butler converted a three point play over Al Horford to cut it to 101-100. Smart hit 1-2 at the line for a two point Boston lead with 16.9 seconds showing on the clock. Butler was fouled by Horford on a three-point attempt with just 3.0 seconds left, and Butler calmly sank all three to make it 103-102 Heat. After a timeout, the game winning play came on an inbounds pass from White to Smart. Smart put up a three-pointer that went in and out, but White beat Max Strus to the rebound and would scoop it into the basket just before the clock hit zeros. The play did go to review, but it was clear that White got it out of his hand just in time to send this series to a decisive game to see who will play the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals.
Tatum led Boston in the win with 31 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and two blocked shots. Brown added 26 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Brown (0-4) and Tatum (0-8) did struggle from the three-point line combining to go 0-12, but did combine to hit 23-25 from the foul line. Smart stepped up with 21 points, while White (11 points) and Robert Williams III (10 points) also got into double figures. Butler had 24 points for Miami (5-21 from the floor), mostly getting it done from the free throw line (12-14) while also contributing 11 rebounds and eight assists. Martin continued his great play in this series as he has 21 points and 15 rebounds. Gabe Vincent (15), Duncan Robinson (13), Adebayo (11), and Strus (10 points) also all scored in double digits for the Heat. Adebayo chipped in 13 rebounds. Game seven is set for 8:30 p.m. on Monday night in what should be a ruckus TD Garden. Boston while being the fourth playoff team to force a game seven after trailing a series 3-0, is also the first to play that decisive game at home. The other three teams that forced game seven all lost on the road, and teams are 0-150 all-time when trailing a postseason series 3-0 as the Celtics look to set history on Monday. The C’s are also 5-0 in these playoffs in closeout (elimination) games.
Recap by Chris Lessner/Video highlights courtesy of the NBA website
