I read that too…No team has returned from a 3-0 deficit to win an NBA playoff series in 150 tries and just three previous teams have a forced a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a series.
With their win over the Miami Heat on Saturday, the Boston Celtics have tied their Miami series, at 3-3…
The NBA Eastern Conference Finals series heads back to Boston on Monday night, for the seventh and deciding game…
Monday night’s game will be broadcast on TNT at 8:30pm, and the game will be played in the TD Garden…The TD Garden is not the old Boston Garden, but you still have to think that there may be Leprechaun Legends looming under that new Boston Garden/TD Garden floor…Legends like “Larry Legend” himself, Larry Bird; plus other Large Leprechauns looming like Bill Russell, Robert Parrish, Kevin McHale, Paul Silas, JoJo White, Bob Cousy, and more….I remember watching an NBA Finals game on Memorial Day Monday, back in the early 80’s, and it was on one of those TV’s over at the old Ham’s Restaurant, on Friendly Avenue, and this Boston team might be hearkening back memories of those Celtics teams of the past….Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parris, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, and others doing their thing….And that might have been the Celtics-LA Lakers in that finals matchup at Ham’s back in the 80’s, on Memorial Day Monday….
Either way, some of that Memorial Day Monday Magic is back, and it is Back in Boston….Bring on the Boston Baked Beans, and we will find out it the Miami Heat are cooked, come Monday night…Down 3-0 and come back and win the Seven Game Series???
Time for the Boston Celtics to make some history…Time to toss the Tea, back into the harbor…
If you can’t have Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams available at game time, why not call on Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White, and see what they can do…So far, they have done quite well, thank you….
from the USA Today, www.usatoday.com:
The Miami Heat’s last best chance to eliminate the Boston Celtics disintegrated with a Derrick White put-back as time expired in Game 6 on Saturday
The Celtics defeated the Heat, 104-103, setting up a final game in the Eastern Conference Finals.
White grabbed a rebound near the rim on a missed Marcus Smart 3-point attempt and made the game-winning basket.
“Our guys talk about just crashing at the end of the game, giving it a chance, and D-White made a great play,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Smart made a great play getting open to get a shot off, and D-White made a great play.”
White’s basket was the second buzzer-beater in NBA history by a player whose team was facing elimination and trailing at the time of the shot, according to the Celtics public relations department. The other? Chicago’s Michael Jordan made a game-winning shot over Cleveland’s Craig Ehlo in 1989.
The Celtics squandered a 98-88 lead with 3:41 left in the fourth and trailed 103-102 after Miami’s Jimmy Butler made three free throws with three seconds go to.
“Basketball for you,” Butler said. “Basketball at its finest. Very, very, very entertaining.”
The Heat still have a chance to win the series ? Game 7 is Monday (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT) and the winner faces Denver in the NBA Finals ? but they will have to win in Boston against a team sensing a historic comeback.
“We can do it. I know that we will do it,” Butler said. “We’ve got to go on the road and win in a very, very, very tough environment. But we are capable of it. So let’s get busy.”
No team has returned from a 3-0 deficit to win an NBA playoff series in 150 tries and just three previous teams have a forced a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a series.
Boston can become the first to do it. The Celtics have momentum, experience, confidence and home-court advantage to pull it off.
For all their faults, they know how to win with their season on the line. “At their hardest times they stick by each other, and they’ve done that for long time, so credit to them,” Mazzulla said.
Boston relied on its two All-NBA players to force the win-or-go-home scenario. Jayson Tatum had 31, 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks and Jaylen Brown had 26 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Boston’s Marcus Smart added 21 points.
Down 3-0 a week ago, the Celtics avoided elimination for the fifth consecutive game since trailing Philadelphia 3-2 in the conference semifinals.