If I’m not wrong (one of the announcers said it) it’ the first time a team who came back from 0-3 has a chance to win game seven on their home court.
Yes that’s what they said.
I keep thinking of the 2004 Red Sox. Down 0-3 to the Yankees in the ALCS and then Dave Roberts starts the comeback with that steal of second. The Sox win 4 straight and then sweep the Cardinals to win the World Series.
If the Celtics win game 7, there’s no way they will sweep the Nuggets.
Wow, what a finish. D White inbounded that ball and then nobody guarded him. He had a clear path to the basket for that offensive rebound. Adebayo was in the paint and all he could do was watch. You could tell, he knew the shot beat the buzzer.
Just… WOW.
That was wild.
I didn’t notice it at the time, but the refs may have put too much time back on the clock after the foul on Horford that sent Butler to the line for the 3 free throws.
That extra 0.9 seconds made just a bit of a difference on the last play.
First, the “TV” time is not official. Only the clock in the arena.
Second, when the refs reviewed to determine if Butler was taking a 3-pointer (he was) when he was fouled, they also set the clock to when the foul occurred. That was 3.0 seconds. There’s a clear shot of the clock in the arena with 3 seconds on it when he is fouled.
With that said, when watching it on TV, it appears to just jump from 2.1 to 3.0 seconds with no explanation. And that extra time made all the difference. But that’s not what happened in the arena.
The Heat did get credit for only two points once when it was clearly three. The officiating was slightly below the usual high standard. But I think Boston won fairly, the Heat couldn’t shut ‘em down in the last three seconds.
With Butler’s 3 free throws I thought Boston was done. But the Heat made a big mistake in not guarding the inbounds passer. That’s a fairly basic strategy in that situation. Nobody guarded or boxed out D White and he had a clear path to the basket and easily put in the O rebound.
Massive mistake that killed Miami.
And it was flabbergasting how Duncan Robinson missed two 3s with excellent looks down the stretch.
I don’t know one way or the other.
They discussed this on TNT (Shaq, Kenny, Barkley, etc) and they said the Heat player (Strus?) who was guarding the inbounder/White didn’t necessarily mess up. The Miami coach said pretty much the same. Strus was supposed to help deny the ball going to Tatum or Brown, and Strus jumped out to double team Tatum towards midcourt when White was trying to inbound it to Tatum and it worked - Tatum was now too guarded to receive the inbounds pass. However, by doing that, Stus was too far away from White when White finally inbounded to Smart. White immediately broke left for a potential pass from Smart, then White broke fast toward the goal when Smart shot it. Strus though was too far away to run back and get in front of White. Just one of those things.
If it was a mistake, then it’s probably on the coach for asking him to move off the inbound passer, especially toward midcourt. It did work, Tatum couldn’t get the ball. But yea, it did leave White free to crash the boards.
The Heat can’t do much about injuries except add ice, elevate and rest. Lowry was a leader on the Raptors but although making a few good plays has not remotely performed to his abilities in this series (except for one 13 point quarter). He’ll need to bring more to Boston.
The Celtics has better come prepared for battle. Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler severely underperformed in game 6. They won’t do that in back to back games.
It’s looking right now like the Heat will avoid being the first time to blow a 3-0 lead.
Lowry showed up, but Martin was a powerhouse. Surprising the number of road wins in this series.
I admit I thought Boston would win easily tonight. But Miami controlled this game after the first 8 minutes. Celtics were down 7 after the first quarter and never got any closer. 4th quarter was a Heat blowout.
And so the coaching musical chairs continues…
The Miami Heat have been giant slayers. Does their run end here, against Denver? I think it does. I’m guessing Denver in 6. Maybe 5.
These long series can tire teams. I would say Nuggets in six.
I’d probably pick Denver too, but I thought Miami would lose every single series so far so I wouldn’t put money on it either. Getting the Larry Bird trophy in Boston must have felt good for Butler.
Turned on the game at the end of the 1st quarter and thought from the score that the game must have just started. By the end of the 2nd quarter it was clear that Boston had decided not to show up, and I turned it off.
Yes, Boston shot terribly, especially in the first half — and not all because of Miami’s defense. Boston looked nervous, like they were too aware they could make series-comeback history.
Tatum’s tweaked ankle was hurting him, but he gutted it out valiantly and actually played okay in spurts. It wouldn’t have helped much if he hadn’t hurt it. Like I said, Boston played like nervous nellies.