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.”
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
LONG TIME COMING: With the addition of Marcus Smart, the Washington Wizards finally held a team to under 100 points, the last team this season to do so The Detroit Pistons on Monday won their seventh straight game in the NBA with in-form Cade Cunningham making 32 points and grabbing nine rebounds in a 106-97 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pistons, who are in the playoff position, moved to 32-26, their best record at this stage of a season for 17 years. It was an all-round effort from Detroit with Tobias Harris adding 20 points and Jalen Duren making 19 rebounds along with his 12 points. It was a tight contest until Detroit pulled away late in the third quarter to tie their longest winning streak since the 2014-2015
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