2023-05-28 23:08:02
BOSTON (AP) — Moments after Boston’s dramatic victory in Miami on Saturday night, Jaylen Brown began to think about the future. He raised his hands, held up seven fingers, and started yelling, “Game 7, Game 7!”
That’s right, Game 7.
Brown and Boston are on the verge of making history after Derrick White’s final shot, with the clock almost zero, lifted the Celtics past the Heat 104-103 in Game 6. One of the NBA’s most iconic franchises is seeking to become the first team to come back from a 0-3 deficit and win a best-of-seven series in league playoff history.
What follows is one more game of the Eastern Conference finals in Boston on Monday night.
And it looks like the series of ups and downs could be on its way to an epic conclusion.
The Celtics are the fourth NBA team to erase a 0-3 deficit in a seven-game series that forces the decider. The other three teams, the 1951 Knicks, in the NBA Finals; the 1994 Denver Nuggets in the second round and the 2003 Portland Trail Blazers lost the seventh, all on the road.
“We have one more chance, it’s time”; said Jayson Tatum, who had 31 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in Game 6 to join Larry Bird as the only two Celtics players in double figures in playoff games with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. . “It is far from finished. It’s still an uphill battle. But it always feels good to give yourself another chance.”
Boston looks to extend a crazy postseason that already includes five wins as they face elimination, two in the East semifinals after falling behind 3-2 with the 76ers and now three in a row against the Heat.
The Celtics are 27-9 in a seventh game and have won the most recent four, including a 112-88 win over Philadelphia in the previous round in which Tatum scored 51 points, the most in a seventh game in NBA history. Boston also beat the Heat in the seventh of the Eastern Finals last year, when Jimmy Butler missed what would have been three-point lead with 17 seconds left.
The Heat are 6-5 lifetime in Game 7, losing the last two. Miami is 0-2 when facing these types of games on the road.
The winner of Monday’s game will advance to face the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals.
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