Derrick White didn’t need to wait for a review to know that his game-winning tip Saturday night left his hand before the buzzer, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. White became the latest hero in the Celtics‘ long playoff history, putting back Marcus Smart‘s miss a split second before time expired to extend this year’s wildest series to a seventh game.
After inbounding the ball with three seconds left, White crashed the boards in case of a missed shot. The Heat denied passes to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, leaving Smart to fire up a three-pointer that rattled in and out, setting the stage for White’s putback.
“That’s the only place it could have bounced to hurt us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought we had a lot of things covered on that play, and sometimes things just don’t break your way.”
The play saved the Celtics from what was shaping up to be an epic collapse with their season on the line. They led by nine points with three minutes to play before their offense stalled, allowing Miami to take the lead on three late free throws by Jimmy Butler.
White’s tip denied the Heat a spot in the NBA Finals, at least for now, and it kept alive the Celtics’ chances to become the first team in league history to overcome a 3-0 deficit.
“The group that we have is unique, the group that we have is special,” Brown said, “and sometimes you need a little bit of luck to bring it home.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Smart was determined to get his shot off quickly after his potential game-winning three in Game 4 against Philadelphia was disallowed because it came after the buzzer, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Smart told reporters that he rushed to release the shot last night to make sure that didn’t happen again.
- A challenge used by coach Joe Mazzulla when Butler got fouled set the stage for White’s heroics. The clock was at 2.1 seconds when the whistle blew, but it was reset to 3.0 after a review of the play. The decision to change the time was made by the NBA’s review center, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
- A trip to Topgolf may have turned around the Celtics’ fortunes in the series, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. After a lifeless performance in the Game 3 loss, Al Horford decided that the players needed a fun activity to reconnect with each other, so he suggested to Mazzulla that they all skip a planned film session and go golfing instead. “That moment, that small instance, that small moment really signifies everything that we’re seeing right now,” Brown said after Saturday’s win. “In that moment, we could have chose to be like, throw in the towel, and I think like that’s what everybody was expecting or seeing or feeling, that that was coming. But no, that’s not how we wanted to go out.”
the reverse sweep.
Max Strus left his man and the rest is history. Or more likely the Heat are History.
Thanks for bringing that up. We keep getting the Spoelstra sound byte about “one lucky bounce” but it didn’t gVe to be that way
Continue doubting the Heat.
I do hope the Celtics can complete this comeback…
Just so General Soreness can make up more excuses…
I’m hoping too for non-basketball reasons
Maybe we can all begin to further grasp the concept that stats are just made up of a buncha anomalies that happen to share the same room. They are not armed weaponry for our disposal Monday mornings for us to twist in whatever direction we want, they follow No narrative
We abuse stats to epic levels today, it leads us to talk in absolutes which in turn leads to less appreciation of what it’s all about and that’s only the tip and preceding 48 mins thereafter
watching the foul and there was clearly 2.9 or 2.8 depending on when whistle was blown, but contact was made at 2.9
The NBA suits wanted a LA-Boston final, denied that, the want the Celtics in the Finals as a Miami/Denver Final would bring mediocre TV ratings as well as much less $$$
Like I have said from the beginning, Celtics can’t beat the Heat in a fair game and last night proved it. It’s was extremely blatant.
Caleb hit a clear 3 and only gave him 2pts. They never reviewed it. Last year in Game 7 they reviewed a Strus 3 and fraudulently reversed one of his 3s. I guess those things only happen when they benefit the Celtics.
Miami also received a Tech for committing a goaltend, leading to a 4pt play. They literally created that rule right on the spot. Doubling down on a violation is blatant fixing.
Just those fraudulent 3 pts would give Miami the win so I don’t need to get into the phantom fouls in the 4th or the addition of time on the clock.
On top of it all, this comes after NBA ref and confirmed Celtics fan Eric Lewis went under investigation yesterday morning. Its sad when a team, being the Celtics in this situation, happens to have a egregiously best record when a certain ref is calling the game the past few years and people just ignore it. Corruption is bad enough, but when people just bury their heads in the sand, it shows the lack of integrity this league has. Smh.
True, a lot of the NBA is b.s. But let’s start with the most glaring issue in the league and that’s the Lakers getting four and five times the free throw attempts as their opponents in 3/4 of their games. Any other team getting that on a regular basis would be unheard of.
holding the rim is an unsportsmanlike tech and it was a goaltend plus the foul. I think Bam thought he was just trying to feel where the rim was . But it wa the right call. There were some other calls against Miami that didn’t make sense including Butler’s offensive foul.
Love how you conveniently forgot to mention the Butler double dribble before the Horford foul which I still don’t think was even a foul. You needed a stop. You didn’t get it. You lost.
I despise the Celtics and know the refs love them, but this just ain’t it man.
We must be watching a different series. Any fan of any team can recite calls they thought should go one way or the other
I’m not a fan of either team—hope Denver bears whomever makes it— but there was a legitimate change to everything in game 4 when the vibe entailed Spoelstra and the team taking their foot off the gas pedal. You just don’t allow a team with guys like Tatum, Brown and Smart to feel they have a chance
Lucky we have fellas like you who devote their time daily to the cause huh?
What’s your rate?
Stop. Blame Adebayo’s trash game. The Celtics really won that game, and the refs wanted to save the heat by Horford’s foul.
This is the same guy that said there was a conspiracy for it to be Celtics/Lakers. When he’s proven clearly wrong, he just moves the goal post for himself.
dude I am a Heat han. we don’t need excuses. Have some pride.
It’s hard to take anyone seriously that uses the word “literally” as a verbal crutch. It’s a loser mindset to blame fictional conspiracy theories instead of admitting that you saw a poor performance.
I’d be looking for excuses too if my team had a 3-0 lead and now it’s 3-3.
Pinning it on one or two possessions makes no sense, just win ONE more home game and Miami is off to Denver. Can’t say the comeback hasn’t been entertaining, anybody’s game 7.
Spoelstra has to say what he said (lucky bounce) or say that he screwed up. Strus, apparently, was told to leave White to help deny Tatum the inbounds pass. White was uncovered the entire possession and had an unencumbered lane to the basket. So, it’s not really an issue of a guy failing to box out. It was an assumed risk. Hard to believe denying Tatum the last shot (in a game where he couldn’t throw it in the ocean) was important enough to leave a guy uncovered, or that White would be that guy (he was their best shooter in the game).
Fortunate bounce for BOS, sure, but NOT some outlier great luck like Spoelstra suggests. Put backs in those spots may be rare in the NBA, but they happen a bunch in college. Maybe because defensive calls like the one MIA made are rare in the NBA, but quite common in college.
Why is no one talking about how there should have only been 2.5 secs on the clock?
Because we’ve moved on.
Silver and refs are trying so hard for the Celtics
You’re trying so hard to think.
@sycophant The truth hurts. Couldn’t even touch the celts without a foul be called