The Miami Warmth should try to win a 3rd highway recreation within the Japanese Convention Finals after coming 0.1 seconds away from reaching the NBA Finals.
Derrick White’s season-saving tip-in at the buzzer gave the Celtics a 104-103 win in Recreation 6, avoiding a catastrophic loss for Boston and delivering a gut-punch to the Warmth on the similar time. That the Celtics even wanted that play was unbelievable, as they led by as many as 13 and dominated play for many of the night time. Nonetheless, their chilly capturing (7-of-35 from three) and Miami’s “others” stepping up stored issues shut till Jimmy Butler lastly received himself concerned as a scorer within the fourth quarter.
Butler scored 15 of his 24 factors within the fourth, as he lastly received extra aggressive attacking the paint and drawing fouls. Butler was 12-of-14 on free throws, together with the three makes with three seconds to go to provide Miami the lead, however he was simply 5-of-21 from the sphere and didn’t appear to be his regular self for the primary three quarters. Given Boston’s capturing woes, the Warmth will really feel like they missed a fantastic alternative to finish the collection and advance to the Finals, however the struggles of their stars for many of the night time stored them from ever benefiting from Boston’s tough capturing.
Butler agreed with that evaluation, explaining after the sport that his message to the crew was that “if I play higher, we’re not even on this place.”
Whereas Butler tries to spin this positively, insisting he’s not going to have one other night time this unhealthy in Recreation 7, you additionally need to count on Boston to shoot higher at house. No matter crew misplaced tonight was going to really feel prefer it was a missed alternative. Boston would’ve misplaced the collection in a recreation Jimmy and Bam Adebayo had been non-factors for many of the night time offensively. Miami did lose the sport on an evening Boston shot 20 % from three and Jayson Tatum didn’t have a second half made discipline aim. That’s going to be powerful to bounce again from, and whereas Butler is correct to try to preserve issues constructive proper now for the nice of the crew, there’s loads of purpose to marvel if this may find yourself as the sport that received away from Miami.