Tucker was playing with a leg injury but still averaged 27 minutes per game. Tucker - the Heat’s starting forward and best on-ball defender. In the 2022 conference finals, Caleb Martin was playing behind P.J. The final was Miami 103, Boston 84, the verdict so decisive that after the game Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla minced no words: "The Heat played better than we did and that's it. Which is this: The 1975 Red Sox wound up losing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, and the 1986-87 Celtics, after getting past the Pistons, lost to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.Īnd so it is with the 2022-23 Celtics, whose bid to become the first team in NBA history to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three games came to a crashing and embarrassing end Monday night. I offer up these two blasts from the past - Pudge’s homer, and Larry’s steal - to make a larger point. It was one of those instant-classic Boston sports moments like Pudge Fisk denting the left-field foul pole to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series like Larry Bird stealing an inbound pass from the Detroit Pistons Isiah Thomas and feeding the ball to Dennis Johnson for a game-clinching layup in the 1987 Eastern Conference semifinals. White is always going to be remembered as the guy whose last-second putback of Marcus Smart’s around-the-rim-and-out shot propelled the Celtics to victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. Anywhere he goes in Boston, he’s going to be the face on the giant flat screens. Cool.Īnd that’s the way it’s going to be for the rest of White’s life. Looking up, he smiled in a way that suggested he might have been saying … Oh, you’re cheering me. But then Derrick White appeared on the flat screens that are suspended high above center court at TD Garden, and suddenly the cheering got even louder, so loud that White looked around to see what the fuss was all about. "After that loss, I feel like he made it a necessary effort to really come back and be like, I'm going to be a reason why we win a series or be a reason why we win big games."īOSTON - The cheering was as advertised when the Celtics stepped onto the parquet Monday night for pregame warmups, none of it directed at any one player. "Caleb definitely made a name for himself," his teammate, Bam Adebayo, marveled after the job was finished Monday evening. On that night, 365 days before the best night of his NBA career, only Martin could have possibly imagined what he’d be doing exactly one year later, on May 29, 2023, in a Game 7 against Boston.īeing the best player on the floor in the win that sent the Heat to the finals. He didn’t play a single minute, not so much as an inbounds pass. Precisely one year ago from last night, Caleb Martin sat on the Miami bench and watched the Heat’s 100-96 heartbreaking loss to Boston. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)īOSTON – The date of the last two Game 7s in the Eastern Conference finals was May 29 – kind of odd because prior to last year’s Heat-Celtics finale, there had never been a Game 7 played on that date. "We had a great opportunity and we failed." We're going to have to do some soul searching there because some things have to change in that regard," Al Horford said. The Celtics season is over, leaving history at the altar with a 103-84 Game 7 collapse at home as they could not hold it together for a full 48 minutes under the toughest circumstances. They surfed the waves of inconsistency throughout the year, then navigated a torrential storm in the playoffs to have a chance to be the first team in NBA history to come back from being down 0-3.īut with Tatum a shell of himself, as he put it, it all slowly unraveled as they missed their first 12 three-pointers of the night and never could quite close the gap on the Heat living their identity to the fullest. Just before media day kicked off the season back in the fall, Ime Udoka was suspended and Joe Mazzulla was placed in charge of a team ready to win it all. The margin between history and defeat was the width of a toe. Vincent was sliding across the floor and was just a fraction of a second away from missing Tatum. On the first play of Game 7, Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle landing on Gabe Vincent’s foot, and was simply never the same. BOSTON - After everything they did to get to this point, the Celtics suddenly had the rug pulled from under them.
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