Breaks of the game
For a while there, it looked as if the basketball gods were conspiring to alter the outcome of Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals yesterday. The Heat were up nine with less than a minute to go in the match, seemingly poised to claim their third win in the series. As things turned out, they needed to go through the veritable wringer to secure the victory. And it wasn’t simply because the Celtics refused to give up. So-called breaks appeared to keep going against them en route, testing their limits and challenging their resolve to prevail.
Consider this: The Heat’s Jimmy Butler was whistled for a foul on a driving Jayson Tatum with 29.8 ticks left in the match. Following a successful coach’s challenge, the call was negated, prompting a jump ball on center court, which would have been all well and good ( even if the Celtics subsequently controlled the tip), except that the same review enabling the referees to overturn the initial decision showed him: 1) being pushed away with a forearm (an offensive foul not called); and 2) taking a clean swipe at the ball (not at all the foul called) that bounced off Tatum’s leg before going out of bounds. In other words, the Heat wound up being penalized every which way.
Consider this as well: After the Celtics won the tip, Tatum was able to fire off a three-point attempt that missed. The ensuing scramble had the ball going out of bounds on the far end of the floor. After another lengthy review, the Celtics retained possession. Which, again, would have been all well and good, except that, for some reason, they were allowed to inbound much closer to the basket instead of the backcourt, where the ball went out. The result was a quick pass to a waiting Jaylen Brown for a baseline three, an option that would have otherwise been unavailable.
And consider this: With the Heat up two, Butler was fouled in order to stop the clock and send him to the line. After he received the ball and while he was prepping for his first charity try, the horn sounded to enable the Celtics to send in Daniel Theis for the fouled-out Marcus Smart. This shouldn’t have been allowed; he already had the ball. The ensuing reset was tantamount to icing him. Fortunately, he came through; his first attempt bounced around the ring a few times before hitting the net, and his second attempt was on the mark.
Considering that the Heat won in the end, anyway, their travails will, in retrospect, serve to underscore their sheer resiliency, and rightly so. They shot poorly throughout the set-to, and had to rely on grit and determination — not to mention an outstanding effort from 20-year- old rookie Tyler Herro — to come out on top. Now, they’re on the cusp of booking a seat in the National Basketball Association Finals. There’s a reason for their supreme confidence; it oozes from principal owner Micky Arison to head honcho Pat Riley to head coach Erik Spoelstra to All- Star Butler to neophyte Herro to veteran Udonis Haslem to benchwarmer Myers Leonard. It’s fueling their extraordinary 2020 postseason run, and proving the strength of their culture. The Celtics are a fabled franchise. Theirs isn’t bad at all.