How the Celtics snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and secured a chance at NBA history in Game 7
MIAMI — Jayson Tatum tried to explain the process to us. He sat at a podium Saturday night in the bowels of the Kaseya Center and did his best to offer a detailed recollection of what, from his perspective, happened in the fastest three seconds of his life.
But it’s hard to tell the true story when you can’t stop smiling.
“Oh! Oh my God!” Tatum said, rubbing his forehead and temples. “It was amazing!”
It had been a little more than an hour since he’d had a front-row seat to Derrick White’s fourth-quarter buzzer-beater of a game-winning layup: a spectacular offensive rebound off a missed Marcus Smart 3-pointer that snatched Game 6 from Miami, made the Celtics just the fourth team in NBA history to rally from 3-0 down to force a Game 7, and gives Boston a chance to become the first team to complete the comeback when they take the court at TD Garden on Monday night. It wasn’t enough time to take it all in.
“Man, we ran a play,” he continued, trying to answer the pressing question of what the hell had happened. “They took that away from me: I was trying to get the ball. Jimmy [Butler] and [Max] Strus jumped me, Smart came up and shot, and we just hit the glass. After that, it was a blur. D-White tipped it in, but it was the longest 10 seconds of my life, waiting for confirmation of whether I made it or not.”
Derrick White (center) and the Celtics react after his buzzer-beater to beat the Miami Heat 104-103 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Kaseya Center on May 27, 2023, in Miami. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images) (Megan Briggs via Getty Images)
Okay, enough with the serious stories, Jayson. Let’s get back to the big emotions.
“I still can’t believe it,” said Tatum, who scored a game-high 31 points, along with 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks, a steal, and stellar defense against Butler in a 104-103 Game 6 win. “It was crazy.”
That’s how it felt on the Heat bench, too, where Erik Spoelstra watched as the defensive strategy he’d devised—Strus turning his back on the serving White so he could leap up and help Butler deny Tatum the catch-and-shoot opportunity, forcing everyone else to pass the ball—worked. Until, well, it didn’t.
“Ideally, you would think you would expect to do the right thing,” Spoelstra said. “That ball just bounced in another direction. That was the only place [the ball] could have bounced to hurt us. I thought we had a lot of things under control on that play, and sometimes things just don’t go your way. I don’t think there’s anything to regret. It’s a shame.”
Maybe I don’t regret it, but maybe there’s just a little sadness in the Miami locker room. We’ve heard a lot about how Butler is the Heat’s DJ, setting the mood after both wins and losses. Yet before Butler even entered the locker room, it was point guard Gabe Vincent—who missed Game 5 with a sprained left ankle before deciding to give it a go Saturday and play 41 minutes in his return—who played music while he dressed. His choice? Ed Sheeran’s “Life Goes On.”
Asked if the song had any particular message, Vincent paused before answering, “I’m going to say no, just because I feel like it has a negative connotation. We’re hungry. We’re a bunch of competitors, and you can’t ask for more.” Still: On a night when you had the chance to go to the NBA Finals and lose by 1 at the buzzer, it’s hard not to interpret the choice of a song that begins with the lyrics: “Hit me like a train, I’m speechless / I got nothing to say, everything hurts.”
Smart’s rebound and White’s subsequent charge saved the Celtics, who had controlled most of Game 6 and led by 10 points with 4:55 left, only to tighten the scoring late and surrender a 15-4 run to the Heat. In that stretch, the Celtics missed 9 of 10 field goals and sent a struggling Butler to the goal line 10 times; the last three came after Al Horford fouled Butler on a desperation 3-point attempt in the right corner, putting Miami up 103-102.
“Honestly, at that moment, I was in the middle of a prayer,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds (including five on the offensive glass), three assists, and two steals. “Any prayer I was getting, any plea I was getting, I was just reciting it over and over in my head. I knew our season was on the brink.”
Initially, it appeared Horford fouled Butler with 2.1 seconds left. However, after an official review to determine whether Butler’s feet were behind the 3-point arc, the clock was reset to 3.0 seconds, giving Boston a few extra seconds. White, who had moved to the left corner after snapping the ball after realizing he wasn’t being defended, made sure they took full advantage.
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“I mean, there’s no point in staying in the corner, whether [Smart] makes it or not,” said White, who continued his solid run with 11 points, six assists, four rebounds, three blocks, and a steal. “So he was crashing into the glass. And it came right at me.”
White took advantage of that good fortune and made an incredible play that capped a game that was, in many ways, almost unbelievable.
Throughout this series, the three-point shot has proven to be the gold standard. Miami made more threes than Boston in Games 1 and 3 and had a higher three-point percentage in Game 2; they won all three. The Celtics dominated from long range in Games 4 and 5; they won both. However, in Game 6, the Heat made 14 threes to Boston’s seven, all by Smart and White, and shot 46.7% from three, compared to just 20% for the Celtics—and still lost. (Boston managed to tip the balance, in part, by shooting an impressive 27 of 43 from two-point range (62.8%); Tatum and Brown, in particular, devastated Miami from midrange, going a combined 10 of 13 from the restricted area.)
Another key differentiating factor after five games? Turnovers. Boston committed more turnovers than Miami in the first three games and lost them all; when those conditions changed in Games 4 and 5, so did the result. And yet, on a night when the Heat committed only five turnovers, compared to Boston’s 12, they fell short.
Kevin Love, whom Boston had pressured in the pick-and-roll, was benched, replaced by Caleb Martin, who had been sensational all series off the bench and offered more athleticism, defensive versatility, and power off the dribble. The move paid off: Martin scored 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds, and struggled defensively against Tatum.
Backup center Cody Zeller saw just 2 minutes, 21 seconds of intense play in the second quarter, during which Boston tore him apart in space and outscored the Heat by seven points. He wouldn’t return, as Spoelstra pared his rotation down to a minimum, trying to eliminate the Celtics’ weakest points and using just seven players. (With Malcolm Brogdon sidelined with a forearm injury, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla did the same; aside from a brief 1-minute-50-second appearance by Sam Hauser, with Boston’s season on the line, he only shot seven points.)
However, you can only limit your weaknesses to a certain point before you have to rely on your strengths. While Martin and Vincent did their best to shore up the offense, Miami’s two standard-bearers could barely throw the ball into the ocean on Saturday. Butler and center Bam Adebayo combined to shoot 9 of 37 in Game 6, struggling to find their touch and range through Boston’s defense.
“I told the guys on the bench and in the locker room that if I play better, we wouldn’t even be in this situation, honestly,” Butler said. “And I’m going to get better. … Everything that happened tonight, if I don’t shoot 5 for 21 and turn the ball over and everything else, that’s a different story. I have a new responsibility here, and we’re getting ready for the Finals.”
For the third straight game, Butler missed several shots in the paint that he had been capitalizing on early in the postseason, while also missing the jump shots the Celtics have been more willing to concede. For the third straight game, Adebayo looked uncomfortable challenging Robert Williams III’s height and unable to forcefully outplay Al Horford, whose emphatic rejection of Bam’s dunk attempt midway through the fourth quarter underscored the difficulty Adebayo has had imposing his will on offense since Game 3.
To their credit, Butler and Adebayo continued to battle through those issues, combining for 13 assists and 14 offensive rebounds; just when it looked like Boston was about to put the Heat to bed, Butler dug deep, began attacking the rim with reckless abandon, and single-handedly outscored the Celtics in the final five minutes to give Miami a chance to close out the series.
“When I talk about our team’s competitive spirit, we identify with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Their spirit is incredible,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t give a damn what they threw. We were up one.”
Until they stopped being so.
“Derrick White, like a bolt of lightning, came out of nowhere and saved the day, man,” Brown said.
And now, a Heat team that was literally a second away from advancing has to pick itself up and, for the second straight year, play a Game 7 against the Celtics, this time after losing three straight and on the verge of a historic collapse.
“This group has practically been here before, you know? We’re just renovating it,” Vincent said. “It’s almost like a fairy tale. It’s almost how it’s supposed to be.”
After surviving three consecutive closeout games, Tatum sat on the podium beaming, like a man who finally sees his fairy tale ending within reach.
“I’ve never been so excited to be back in Boston in my life,” he said.
