White, Celtics Force Game 7
Thanks to a buzzer-beating putback by Derrick White, the Boston Celtics stunned the Miami Heat 104-103 to force a Game 7 Monday in Boston. The Celtics are the fourth team in NBA history to extend a postseason series to seven games after losing each of the first three games:
New York Knicks (1951 NBA Finals)
Denver Nuggets (1994 Conference Semifinals)
Portland Trail Blazers (2003 First Round)
Boston Celtics (2023 Conference Finals)
None of the first three teams to do so were able to win the series. The Celtics will be the first of these teams to play Game 7 at home.
The Celtics’ Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 31 points, adding 12 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks. It’s the seventh time Tatum has recorded at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in a game in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, tying LeBron James (2018) for the most such games in a single postseason.
Tatum shot just 8-22 from the field — missing all eight of his 3-point attempts — but went a perfect 15-15 from the free throw line. Tatum is just the fifth player in NBA history to make at least 15 free throws without a miss in a conference finals game (a total of six instances):
24 — Dirk Nowitzki (May 17, 2011)
17 — Bob Love (April 27, 1975)
17 — Nowitzki (May 19, 2003)
16 — Chet Walker (April 30, 1975)
15 — Tim Duncan (May 28, 2005)
15 — Jayson Tatum (May 27, 2023)
Tatum is the only player above to do so in an elimination game.
The second member of the Celtics’ dynamic duo, Jaylen Brown, scored 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and recorded two steals. Brown shot 9-16 from the floor and made eight of his 10 free throws.
It’s the 35th time Tatum and Brown have each scored at least 20 points in the same playoff game, tying John Havlicek and Sam Jones for the second-most such games by a duo in franchise history. Larry Bird and Kevin McHale hold the franchise record with 58 such games.
The Celtics shot just 20.0% from 3-point range (7-35), their worst such percentage in any game this season, regular season included. It’s their worst 3-point field goal percentage in a playoff win since May 26, 2012 (17.6%).
The Heat’s Jimmy Butler scored a team-high 24 points in the loss, but shot a miserable 5-21 from the field (23.8%). Butler also hauled in 11 rebounds and dished out a game-high eight assists.
Butler shot 12-14 from the free throw line, including three makes with 3.0 seconds remaining that put the Heat up by one point after trailing by 10 with less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Heat center Bam Adebayo also struggled from the field, making just four of his 16 attempts (25.0%). Adebayo tallied 11 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists, and did not record a turnover or personal foul.
Since the NBA began tracking individual turnovers in 1977-78, Adebayo is one of only four players to record at least 10 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in a playoff game without committing a turnover or personal foul:
Wes Unseld (April 20, 1979)
Bobby Jackson (May 10, 2003)
Jimmy Butler (May 29, 2021)
Bam Adebayo (May 27, 2023)
Adebayo is the only one of those players to do so in a conference finals game.
Teammate Caleb Martin scored 21 points and snagged a game-high 15 rebounds, the latter the most he’s recorded in any game in his career, regular season or postseason. Martin shot 7-13 from the field, including 4-8 from 3-point range. He’s averaging 18.2 PPG with 58/46/88 shooting splits in this series.