Derrick White ‘cleans up’ mistake by coach Joe Mazzulla

Boston Celtics keep alive the dream of reaching the 2023 NBA Finals after defeating the Miami Heat (104-103) with a last-second basket at Kaseya Center to send the series to Game 7.

The visitors controlled practically the entire game and did not allow the Heat to get close; However, in the final quarter, a 12-3 rally for the locals and the ‘awakening’ of Jimmy Butler, plus a bad challenge by coach Mazzulla were close to ending the season for the ‘Green Team’.

These are some of the keys to Boston’s narrow victory in Game 6.

1.- The ‘hidden’ Derrick White.

During Game 5, the shooting guard was the one who took the spotlight and in Game 6, Miami did not pay due attention to him and in the end, he came out of a sea of ​​Heat elements to take the rebound on a shot with a tenth of a second end of Marcus Smart and achieve the basket that sent the Final of the East to a decisive seventh game.

The former Spurs finished the evening with 11 points and four boards, one of them offensive, just the one from the final basket that allowed him to ‘clean up’ a bad challenge by coach Joe Mazzulla, who a play earlier gave the Heat the chance to go to the free throw line after challenging a play by Al Horford on Jimmy Butler that at first the judges had marked as a foul but for two points. Mazzulla considered that the Dominican center had not committed a foul and there the referees not only called the foul in favor of the Heat; they also noticed that Butler was behind the arc and gave him the three shots that he made to put the Heat ahead by three tenths. White saved his coach’s homework.

According to ESPN Stats & Info research, White is the second player in NBA history to score on the buzzer to win a game when facing elimination and his team trailed before the shot (source: Basketball -Reference). The other player to do this was Michael Jordan in 1989 against the Cavaliers.

2.- Defensive application

Boston knew how to be uncomfortable when it came to shooting their rival, despite the fact that the Heat were accurate from the arc with 14-30 (46.7%), it did not reach them since the Celtics filled the spaces well and left Miami with a poor 35.5 % from field when scoring only 33 of 93 attempts.

To this task we must add that the defensive rebounds were also favorable for the Celtics with 35 to 30 for the Heat, with Jayson Tatum being the most outstanding with nine defensive boards of the 12 he recorded.

3.- High score of the green ‘Big Three’

Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum split the offensive work; practically each one had its shine in a room.

Brown endorsed the first with 17 points, for the second Tatum uncovered with a contribution of 18 and in the last it was Smart who appeared to second his teammates. It wasn’t the same with the Heat, who until the third quarter had seen little to nothing of Butler and Bam Adebayo.

Game 7 of the Eastern Final will take place on Monday at TD garde at 8:30 p.m. (ET).