Raptors, Celtics gave us a Game 6 for the ages
Now these teams have to put the emotion behind them, prepare for winner-take-all
Brad Stevens called it one of those special games.
And he was the losing coach. It was the kind of game you dreamed about as a kid. The reason you played or wanted to play. Except, normally, when you’re slugging back and forth, when you’re making play after play, the last shot always comes in Game 7.
In your dreams and on your driveway, it’s always Game 7.
But the Raptors and the Celtics played their classic on a Wednesday night that just happened to be Game 6, the kind of game that brought fellow NBA players and opinion makers out of their seats in applause and admiration. The kind of game that brought more attention in America than Kyle Lowry or the Raptors usually receive, because it was a show, and he was a show, and this was as memorable a game — all six quarters of it, so much on the line — as most of us have ever seen.
“Bubble or not, one of the great playoff games in NBA history,” tweeted Michael Wilbon, longtime Washington Post columnist and longtime co-host of PTI on ESPN, who has been covering the league for years. “Considering what was at stake ... perhaps not long on artistry but so much grit and incredibly contested — a series that demands a Game 7.”
And so it is, a one-game series now between the Raptors and the Celtics. A winner take all, loser leaves the bubble match.
That the Celtics have been the better team for more of the six games than the Raptors have is rather irrelevant.
“We’ve played just well enough to make it a long series,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse, knowing full well what his team has been through.
Toronto found a way to win Game 3 with a miracle ending and, while still breathing, found a way to win Game 6 with its flow of emotions, the 10 lead changes and the score being tied seven times, with six of the lead changes coming in extra time.
It is difficult to separate from all the emotion of Game 6 to focus on what is now the only game that matters to either team. But, somehow, the players, the coaches, all those involved with both teams living together under the same unusual circumstances, will play the series-clinching game Friday night. It doesn’t have to be a classic. It may not be.
“Whatever happened yesterday doesn’t really have meaning tomorrow,” said Stevens.
The Game 6 loss might have eaten up some coaches. This was Boston’s first chance to eliminate Toronto. Stevens chose a different approach. He went back to his hotel room after and fell asleep without counting missed shots by Kemba Walker.
“I think I slept better last night than I’ve slept at any time because I know we competed,” he said. “I know there’s things we can clean up and I’m looking forward to this because this is what you’re here for.”
Watching Lowry in Game 6 and in the previous Raptors wins brought back memories of Doug Gilmour as a Toronto Maple Leaf in the Stanley Cup playoffs of 1993. Just how they competed. Just how they mattered most when it mattered most. Just how they put in more time with smaller bodies, pushing limits. Just doing Toronto proud.
There isn’t much comparison between hockey and basketball, but you can compare the spirit of those who play, how much of themselves they put into it, how the bigger games define them: Gilmour was the Toronto athlete who took our breath away back then. Lowry holds that stage now.
“This is kind of why you coach,” said Nurse, speaking on being part of Game 6 and the emotional switch of heading to Game 7. “It’s kind of the crazy love of a coach, to want to be in the middle of that. That’s the love of coaching, the love of competition.”
The time for reflection is later. Game 6 was magnificent theatre. There’s Game 7 to play now. There’s a series to be won.