CELTICS FORCE GAME 7 Full Reaction to Celtics' Gm 6 win over the Heat

We'll begin with the two words that almost nobody thought could actually be applied to the Eastern Conference Finals. Game 7. Who would have thought that this is where we would be? The Celtics visiting the Heat, trying to force that Game 7, but with their backs against the wall. The Celtics 4-0 this postseason when facing elimination. And Jason Tatum would stare at Jimmy Butler, particularly in the second, and be totally unfazed. It was tough. He made it work. Then the next possession, Tatum again gets the ball. Turnaround over Butler. The lead was 7. Celtics lead up 5. Tatum crosses over, lays it in, and around Butler. 25 points in the first half. His fifth career 25-point half when facing elimination. Butler again blocked by Tatum. This time, Tatum just won both ends of the match. Look, it was a kind of a brutal night for Jimmy Butler until the very end. Five minutes to go in the second quarter. Seven points, still the lead for the Celtics. How about that from Robert Williams III? The lob, the flush. The lead was 9. Three minutes to go in the half. It is now 8. The gap between Miami and Boston. Butler drops that in for 2. And the Heat somehow only trailed by 4 at the break. We get to the third. Marcus Smart gets it. Eh, it's going to stop right there. How about that 3? Four minutes to go in the third. Celtics lead 73-65. Derek White going to find Williams. Heard the whistle. That is a foul. The Celtics up 7 after the three quarters of play. We go to the fourth. Heat down 4. Duncan Robinson makes that one. And Heat went in 1 a minute later. Still a one-point game. Robinson drives. The answer is no, but Butler is a yes. The putback struggled through most of this game. The fourth quarter, a bit of a different story for Jimmy Butler. After some Celtics free throws, Heat down 3 off the mystery. Bam! Goes for the dunk, but no. Al Horford gets the block. Then Jalen Brown. He takes it the other way. 26 points, 10 rebounds. And a foul on that one. Defense into some offense. Horford on Adebayo there. Midway through the fourth. Celtics now up 4. Jason Tatum. He had 25 in the first half. He would finish with 31. That's two of them. The lead now, Celtics by 6. Now only 4. Make it 7, courtesy of White knocking down the 3. Marcus Smart and 1. Celtics, after a couple of free throws, you're thinking, oh, this is comfortable. They're up 10. No, don't get too comfortable. Two minutes to go in the game. Heat down 7. It's Butler burying that 3. They cut the lead to 4. A minute to go in this game, still a 4-point lead. Butler and the foul. It is down 2-1. Six seconds to play. Heat down 2. Butler goes through the corner. It's fouled by Horford. They initially called this two shots. But no, look at the replay. Both feet for Butler were behind the line. They would give him 3. Look at it. Both feet behind the line. Everything about it was awkward. He made the first 2. There's the 3. 15 of his 24 points came in the fourth quarter. And his message to his team, one more stop. Three seconds left. Guess what? They did not get it. Smart to miss. White is there for the putback. It is absurd, but that is exactly what happened. That counted. Look at it. Like, I don't even know how to describe it in the moment. But this game goes to the Celtics, 1-0-4, 1-0-3. We get a game 7. Just happy we won. Whatever it takes, we got our backs against the wall. Just happy we won. I mean, we're a resilient group. We pick each other up. We fight for each other. Job isn't done yet. We got a tough one in game 7. And we got to find a way to get one more win here. What were the range of emotions you felt just now in these few seconds right here? Like a big sigh of relief. It's like you get another chance. We're not done yet. We got to keep fighting. But that was a hell of a win. I'm at a loss for words. That's my bad. It's all good. I got me too. What has Derek White meant to your team? Everything. I told him this morning at shoot-around, be yourself. Be aggressive. If I pass it to you, shoot it. If you got to open it, go get it. Be a basketball player. You guys can't hold nothing back. As they say, let all the bullets go. You guys went down 0-3, and you forced a game 7. What does that mean to you that you forced it? I love this team. No matter what everybody was saying, we kept fighting. Down but not out. We got another chance. I go to war with every guy in that locker room. As it shows, we got a big one on Monday. We now have Doris Burke who joins us from Miami. I mean, I know how we felt watching that final play. There was a bit of a no way, oh my god, complete shock. But you saw it with your own eyes. What did you see from the Celtics on that final possession? Well, I have to give a ton of credit to Derek White for playing through the final buzzer. You know, you go back to your childhood in basketball, and you're always taught that play through the final buzzer. And, you know, Derek has been such a valuable piece for this team, right? I mean, he can play on the ball. He can play off the ball. He can start. He guards so many different positions. But, boy, you talk about a guy who's just opportunistic, saving your season. And you know what, Nicole? More than anything, as this game slipped away from Boston, they relinquished the lead. You're thinking in your own mind, oh my goodness, here we go again for Boston. But for three straight games, they have shown incredible grit and toughness. And now on Monday night, we have an opportunity to perhaps witness a little history, or maybe Miami can put this to bed. I have no idea what to expect. What does it remind you of for the Celtics down 3-0, now forcing the game 7? Is there a parallel in your mind? No, the only thing, I was talking to Dave Bash about this postgame, the only thing that comes close in my memories as both a longtime fan of the NBA and somebody who's covered it is when the Cleveland Cavaliers went down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors. You think it's history, and they dig it out of the dirt and win it. I'll tell you, each of those series, this one and that one, has been an absolute privilege to be a part of. All right, game 7 is Monday. Let's take it each team one at a time. What are the keys for each of them to actually get to the NBA Finals? Well, I'll begin with the Boston Celtics, because this ability to climb back into this series has been built on the strength of their defense. And that continued tonight, specifically as it relates to Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler in his first six shots tonight, Nicole, had six different guys contest a shot, and all six shots were contested. Boston has been incredible, staying down on shot fake, staying between he and the basket, making life difficult on he and Bam Adebayo. That has to continue. Their switches have to be clean on the others. There is some Golden State action that they're having to guard with the shooters of Miami, but it has to begin with their defense. And if you're the Miami Heat, listen, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, all of these guys, Caleb Martin, they've been brilliant, and they've had their moments. But all year, you've ridden with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, and they have got to become aggressive and efficient. And here's what I'm curious about. Did the momentum Jimmy Butler built late in that game, becoming Jimmy again, getting to the basket, getting to the free throw line, can he build into that going into game seven? I'm so curious. Can't wait. Let's go, Memorial Day. Celtics in 7-0 is a bold prediction. The Celtics, they're getting there, though. After they trailed to the Heat three games to none, with their backs against the wall. You remember, after the game three loss, Marcus Smart had this to say. Don't let us get one. Just don't let us get one. Kevin Mallon. There you go. Jimmy Butler on having to play a seventh game. Jimmy, sports are replete with dramatic changes of emotions in a tick like that. Can you just take us through from the elation of seeing it called a three-shot foul, making the three shots, and then that final Celtics sequence? Basketball for you. Basketball is fine. It's very, very, very entertaining. That's good basketball. And I think, I believe, as we all do, you're going to get the same test until you pass it, I swear. We're in the same position last year. And we can do it. I know that we will do it. We've got to go on the road and win in a very, very, very tough environment. But we're capable of it. Let's get busy. Jimmy, you're all about saying even keel through the ups and the downs. How do you, as a leader, try to keep this team mentally in it after a loss like this? Let them know that as good or as bad as we played tonight, we still lost. So we still got a job to do at the end of the day. And we will be in this thing together, home, away, on the road. Like I told the guys on the bench, I told the guys in the locker room that if I play better, we're not even in this position, honestly speaking. And I will be better. And that's what makes me smile, because those guys follow my lead. So when I'm playing better, I think we're playing better as a whole. Jimmy, to follow up on that, that's obviously one of the craziest endings in the history of the game. How do you get everybody through the emotional hurdle of losing in the final second? I'll tell you, there ain't nothing that you can do about it now. All you can do is move on. But honestly, I'm proud of the guys to never give up, fight to the very end, and giving us a chance to win this basketball game. Didn't go our way, part of it. It hasn't been going our way a lot this year. So this is nothing new. We got to go on the road and do something special. But we got a special group, so why not it be us? Jimmy, it's been a long playoffs, maybe even given the nature of the series longer than maybe you even expected. How do you just continue to push through from a physical standpoint? I mean, we pride ourselves on being able to do that. I don't know the quote, but Spoh probably does. He's the most well-conditioned, most professional. Name it, we're all of that. This is what we do every single day in the offseason and the preseason. During the regular season four is to be able to be tired and still figure out a way to win, be tired, still be able to execute. We have to be able to do that now of all times. I think we will. Jimmy, over the last few years, you've somehow been involved in some of the craziest playoff bounces, endings. Was there any part of you walking on the floor like, I can't believe this is happening again? Nope. I got to figure out a way. And the craziest part is I don't got too much to do. We're going to do it as a unit every single time. And we're going to be in this thing together. I know that for a fact. When we huddle up after the game, after a tough loss like this one, everybody's smiling because we know we're very capable of it. I'm telling you. And we're not going to let up. I'm not going to let anybody quit. I'm not going to let our guys quit. I don't give a damn what happens. We're going to go in there. We're going to win. Jimmy, are you a Nostradamus? Because last year, May 29, 2022, you sat at this stage and said that we're going to get it done and we have what it takes. Why do you still feel that way? Because we got some good basketball players on this team. Got some good people that work hard, that do things the right way, and that put the team first and want to win. At the end of the day, that's all that you can ask for from anybody, especially my teammates. And we have a great group. We got some guys that don't quit. Some guys that have had a long road to get to this point. So why give up now? This is the stage that we're on. The stage is set. It's when the lights are the brightest and my guys are going to show up. You mentioned you need to play better. Do you feel like there's anything Boston's doing differently these last few games specifically on you? And what do you feel that is? No, I just miss shots. Just got to make them. Continually hit the open guy, stay aggressive, and continue to lead the way for our guys. They definitely follow my lead. I will say that. They follow Bam's lead as well, but especially me. So if I'm level-headed through the good and through the bad, they will be as well. And so I'm going to smile. I'm going to go home and play some spades. I don't care what nobody say. Everything's going to be okay. You mentioned being level-headed. The night going as it was for you individually, what were you thinking about? What was your mindset in those last five minutes? And in that final stretch, did you feel like you found some answers? I feel like I made some shots. That's the game as a whole. I know the work that I put into it. I know the work that we put into it. I know the confidence and the faith that my coaches and teammates and this entire organization has in myself and everybody else on this roster. We're not going to change. We're going to keep doing punches with the best of them. We're going to see where we end up. But like I said, if I'm better from jump street, we're not even in that position. So everything that happened tonight, if I don't go 5 for 21 and turn the ball over and all of this good stuff, it's a different story. I got on a different hat up here and we're getting ready to go to the finals.