‘That sh*t was crazy’, Jayson Tatum reacts after Derrick White saves Boston’s season in the final seconds of Game 6 vs. Miami
Boston was trailing the Heat by one point in the final three seconds of the Eastern Conference Finals after letting their rivals recover from a 10-point lead in Florida. As Marcus Smart received the ball, he immediately shot for three points and missed. As the ball rimmed out, everyone believed his team’s campaign was over.
However, White appeared below the rim like Superman and swooped to put up a layup with 0.1 second to the final buzzer and won the match 104 to 103, forcing a Game 7 this Monday as they tied the series 3-3.
Take a look at these historic final images in the video below as the whole Celtics team are awaiting the refs call after Derrick’s heroics:
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“I mean, it don’t do no good to stand in the corner there, whether he makes it or not,” White recalled about those final moments. “So I just was crashing the glass, and it came right to me.”
This was a crazy ending to an already insane match, especially considering that Boston are now at the doors of becoming the first franchise in NBA history to ever come back from a 3-0 series.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a little crazy. My phone is already blowing up,” Derrick said about handling all the commotion around him, now that he’s become an instant folk hero in Massachusetts.
“Get home tomorrow, play with (my son) Hendrix. I’m sure he won’t look at me any differently, so that’ll be really cool.”
His teammates recalled Derrick’s play again and again as everyone was still in shock after the match
Right after the refs made White’s layup shot official, Jayson Tatum was right there on the floor celebrating with his teammates. However, after the match he admitted to still be processing what had just happened on the Kaseya Center’s court.
“Ooh-whee,” he said. “Oh, my God. That was incredible. Man, we drew up a play. They kind of took away that — I was trying to get the ball. Jimmy and Strus jumped out to me, Smart came and shot it, and we just crashed the glass. Everything was like a blur after that. D-White tipped it in, but that felt like the longest 10 seconds ever waiting for confirmation if he made it or not.”
Jaylen Brown was in a similar state as his superstar teammate. It seemed like he couldn’t believe his eyes as he walked to the podium to attend the press.
“It all happened so fast,” said Brown, who then gave an accurate description of those final seconds. “I couldn’t really tell [what happened]. I know Smart shot it, and I thought it was good. Then Derrick White like a flash of lightning just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man. It was just an incredible play.”
Source: Basketball Insider
