At the moment Derrick White’s buzzer-beating layup fell through the basket, his father, Richard, could not celebrate yet. The officials still needed to rule whether the putback bucket would count.
Few reviews have ever weighed more. If the referees waved off the basket, Boston’s season would end in a crushing fourth-quarter collapse. If they determined the score counted, Derrick’s shot would head straight to Celtics lore. He would be the savior of the season. The extender of the Eastern Conference finals. The humble, unassuming guard with the wherewithal to hustle his way into history. On the court, Derrick believed he released the ball just in time. In their Denver area home, his parents held their breath.
“Did he get it off?” Richard wondered.
Yes. Just barely. In the final fraction of a second, Derrick rescued the Celtics’ season. At the last possible moment, he crashed past Max Strus, flew toward the legends of John Havlicek and Larry Bird and finished a 104-103 Game 6 thriller with a putback of a Marcus Smart miss.
“I stood up,” Richard said during a phone conversation. “My wife and I slapped hands. And all we could say was, ‘Oh, my God.’”
 Monday tipoff in Boston.Following Derrick White's final-second winning putback in Game 6, Boston has an opportunity to become the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-0 deficit and win a playoff series.Boston's Jayson Tatum leads all players with 27.2 points per game in the series, while Miami's Jimmy Butler leads all players in assists (6.2) and steals (2.5) per game. Butler, who has led the Heat to three conference finals in his four seasons with the franchise, is averaging a career-high 28.5 points per game in the first three rounds, carrying Miami on an improbable run as the No. 8 seed.The series winner will face the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals, which is set to begin Thursday. For the Celtics, it would be a second straight trip to the finals. The Heat last played for the title in 2020.(Photo: Rich Storry / USA Today)){kind=link}