Derrick White stood stoically at midcourt as his teammates celebrated on Monday night.
He saw Jayson Tatum toss the ball high into the air, Al Horford run toward the coaching staff and looking for his son long before Jaylen Brown hoisted the NBA Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player trophy. Even coach Joe Mazzulla shared the moment with his wife.
Meanwhile, White appeared ready to get back to work after making the tiebreaking three-pointer with 43 seconds left, giving the Boston Celtics a 105-102 victory and their second trip in three years to the NBA Finals with a 4-0 sweep over the Indiana Pacers.
Photo: AFP
“Great shot. We work on that all the time, two-on-one reads,” Brown said after scoring 29 points, grabbing six rebounds and blocking a key shot with 65 seconds left to preserve the lead. “Before that, I told D White just to stay ready and that was a big shot, a big shot to send us to the finals.”
White scored just 16 points and made just one of eight threes before making the decisive shot from the corner. Until then, he seemed to have taken a back seat to Brown, Tatum — who had 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists — Jrue Holiday and even the 37-year-old Horford.
However, when the Celtics needed a basket to chase the 18th NBA title in franchise history, the poised White delivered with a shot that would be remembered forever in Boston.
The Celtics are to face either the Dallas Mavericks or the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were yesterday to play their Game 4. The Mavericks have a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals.
“We feel confident, we feel comfortable in any type of game, and we feel we’ve got answers for anything at us,” White said. “We’ve just got to find the right ones.”
Boston’s victory came exactly one year after White’s tip-in rallied from the Celtics from a 3-0 deficit to tie the conference finals against the Miami Heat — only to lose Game 7 at home. This year, they have won seven straight playoff games, are 6-0 on the road and are 3-0 in elimination games.
It certainly was not easy against the Pacers, who were a perfect 6-0 on their home court before ending the season with two straight losses at a sold-out Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Indiana lost three times in the series despite holding leads or being tied in the final minute. It happened again on Monday as Boston pitched a shutout for the final three-and-a-half minutes.
Tempers flared briefly in the third when Pacers center Myles Turner knocked guard White to the ground. Brown, who was named the MVP of the series, grabbed Turner’s shoulder and Turner shoved Brown away. Turner was called for an offensive foul as he and Brown each drew technical fouls.
In another scary moment, Brown’s hand hit T.J. McConnell in the face, sending him crashing to the ground.
The refs ruled it was a common foul following a replay review, but the two frays did not change the back-and-forth tenor of the game — or the series — and the Pacers never backed down.
“They fought us hard to the wire. They have pride as a team. They didn’t want to give up,” a relieved Tatum said. “We missed bunnies all night. I knew we were due for one. That was a big-time shot.”
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946