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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – The Toronto Raptors faced a sizable starting deficit. They fell behind in the fourth quarter. And again in the first extension. And again in the second overtime.
Exhausted and on the edge of the abyss, the reigning NBA champions rose to the occasion.
Next up: Game 7, for a spot in the Eastern Conference finals.
OG Anunoby, the hero of Game 3 with a bell-hitting triple, put the Raptors ahead to stay with a triple with just under a minute to play in double overtime, Kyle Lowry landed an acrobatic jump to fall with 11.7 seconds left. and the Raptors beat the Boston Celtics, 125-122, in Game 6 on Wednesday night (Thursday Manila time).
Lowry scored 33 points in 53 minutes for Toronto. Norman Powell had 23, including a pair of free throws with 5.0 seconds left. Fred VanVleet scored 21 points for the Raptors, who needed victory to extend their season, and Anunoby had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
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Jaylen Brown scored 31 points and 16 rebounds for the Celtics, who had their starters on the court, without a single substitute, for the final 22 minutes or more, returning to the 23.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Jayson Tatum had 29 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. Marcus Smart had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, and missed a triple that would have tied him with about 3 seconds left in the second overtime session.
Daniel Theis had 18 points for the Celtics. Theis played 47 minutes – the other four Boston starters Tatum, Smart, Brown and Kemba Walker (who was limited to five points), logged at least 50. And tempers flared when he finished, all got a few extra words in before the Game 7 on Friday.
The numbers were ridiculous: Boston shot 44 out of 100, Toronto 44 out of 101.
Boston led 52-48 at halftime, after both teams had no shortage of offensive struggles in the first half.
TIP-INS
Raptors: Lowry played the entire second half again, the third time it happened in the last four games. … Lowry received a cut below the chin in the second quarter, which he argued was from a Boston elbow. No foul was called.
Celtics: Brown took 18 shots in the first half, the most by a Celtics player in the first 24 minutes of a game since Antoine Walker shot 18 on November 29, 2002, also against Toronto. … Boston fell to 17-22 since 2008 when it has a chance to clinch a series.
GAME HISTORY SEVEN
The Celtics will be in a seventh game for the 33rd time; They are 23-9 all-time, but have lost four of their last seven final games. The Raptors are 3-2 in Game 7.
ROAD, SWEET ROAD
Technically, the home and away rankings still apply for bubble record keeping, so both teams are now 0-3 “at home” in the series. Game 7 will be considered a Toronto home game.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
The seventh game is Friday.
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