Miami-Boston 103-104, the Celtics come back from 0-3 to 3-3 with a basket to the last cent – Corriere.it

A feat one hundredth of a second from the end saves Boston in Game 6 of the NBA East Finals vs You love me and, thanks to the 104-103 success in Florida, delivers it to an historic perspective: never in the previous 150 occasions that have occurred, no team in the professional league managed to come back and win from a 0-3 situation in a series of the playoffs. The Celtics will have the opportunity to break down this wall on the Italian night between Monday 29 and Tuesday 31 May, when in their TD Garden they will find themselves at 3-3 and therefore with the opponent in turn in a match ball situation, but with an advantage that more than for the field factor (blown up by the Heat in both game 1 and game 2) at this point of a psychological order. Above all for the prowess with which Derrick White decided the match: on Marcus Smart’s wrong three-point shot he was the quickest to be found ready to attack the rebound and deflect the ball into the basket. The instant replay confirmed that at the moment when the ball left the hands of the Celtics player there was still a hundredth of a second missing, a rustle of time that gave one of the most clamorous buzzer beater (basket made at the sound of the siren ed) that they remember.

Waiting to understand if they will become the first team to go from 0-3 to 4-3 Boston became the fourth ever to crown a comeback that forced game 7. On the other three occasions the super-comeback was not completed in the decisive match , so Boston will also have to dispel a second negative tradition. In the meantime, he is enjoying this enterprise, matured in an encounter that many observers have defined as savage. The Celtics almost always controlled it with authority, but in the last quarter they slipped due to a 12-2 run by the hosts which allowed Miami to move up +1 with three seconds left. It was Jimmy Butler who signed the pass with three free throws which are also due to a tactical error by Boston. With the Heat down by two, the forward went for a shot from the corner and was fouled by Al Horford. The officials initially gave that two-point field goal. Joe Mazzulla, coach of the Celtics, however, asked for the challenge, in the hope that it would document that Horford had not committed the penalty. Instead, the video analysis not only reiterated it, but also explained that the Miami winger had his feet behind the three-point line: so instead of hoping for a draw and extra time, Miami was able to have the chance overtaking and he made the most of it. But fate had a cruel joke in store for her. More than a game, we said, it was a trap – this is the sequence of the partials of the individual quarters, with the score from Miami to be indicated first: 29-34; 24-23; 19-22; 31-25. Final, in fact, 103-104 – and the characteristic was the bad aim of both teams. The statistics even say that the shooting evening in Boston was the worst of the season: in the absence of the injured Brogdon, even the first guns were wrong, i.e. Tatum (25 points in the first half but only 6 in the second) and Brown (26 points and 10 rebounds, but 0/4 from long distance). Apart from Smart’s 4/11 – not a great stat – and White’s 3/7, the rest of the team remained dry with 0/17. But even Miami (5/21 by Butler from the field, 6/18 by Vincent, so to speak) didn’t go any better.

Her capital mistake, which risks jeopardizing the qualification for the final against the Denver Nuggets (still waiting to know the name of the challenger and therefore able to rest properly), for not being ready for that rebound that White caught with the speed of a cat. It was an action that will become a symbol, if not the symbol of this season, and which rightfully enters the list of memorable feats, a bit like the daring basket, even the siren one, with which Kawhi Leonard in the 2019 allowed the Toronto Raptors to eliminate Philadelphia in game 7 of the East final and to reach the final against the Golden State Warriors which would have given the Canadians their first and for now only title. The images of White’s winning paw went viral on the Internet and sparked reactions on the social networks of many players. But the most heated in exalting that feat was Derrick’s dad: That’s my son! was his proud tweet.