Playing on weary legs and with a gash on his chin that required three post-game stitches to close, Kyle Lowry backed his big behind into Boston’s Kemba Walker with 11.7 seconds left to play before turning and hitting a jump shot while crashing to the floor.
Lowry’s huge basket all but sealed the game on Wednesday, and he exhaled deeply as he walked back to the bench. His team and Toronto Raptors fans did too.
The six-time all-star had 33 points in 53 minutes, plus eight rebounds and six assists, in another monster performance, and the Raptors beat the Celtics 125-122 in double-overtime to even the series at 3-3, and force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinal.
Playing on weary legs and with a gash on his chin that required three post-game stitches to close, Kyle Lowry backed his big behind into Boston’s Kemba Walker with 11.7 seconds left to play before turning and hitting a jump shot while crashing to the floor.
Lowry’s huge basket all but sealed the game on Wednesday, and he exhaled deeply as he walked back to the bench. His team and Toronto Raptors fans did too.
The six-time all-star had 33 points in 53 minutes, plus eight rebounds and six assists, in another monster performance, and the Raptors beat the Celtics 125-122 in double-overtime to even the series at 3-3, and force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinal.
Game 7 is Friday, with the winner facing the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference final at Walt Disney World. And after a game that took double overtime to decide, it might come down to who has the most left in the tank.
When told by ESPN he’d played 53 minutes, Lowry said laughing: “Damn, that’s what it was? Ride ’em like Seabiscuit.”
For one of the first times in the series though, Lowry had plenty of help. Norman Powell scored 23 points off the bench for the defending NBA champions and was outstanding in overtime. Fred VanVleet added 21 points, OG Anunoby and Serge Ibaka, who’d been questionable after spraining his ankle in Game 5, each finished with 13 points, while Pascal Siakam chipped in with 12.
Relive Kyle Lowry's CLUTCH jumper to seal the @Raptors 2OT W and force a GAME 7 on Friday at 9:00pm/et on TNT!#NBAPlayoffs #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/d0RrsMv90h
— NBA (@NBA) September 10, 2020
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 31 points, while Jayson Tatum added 29.
The Raptors’ cold shooting to end regulation forced the first overtime with the teams tied at 98-98.
Powell had a three-pointer and a pair of free throws in the first overtime, but missed a three attempt at the buzzer, forcing the second extra period with the score 106-106.
Dunks by Tatum and Daniel Theis in the second OT had Boston up by four when Lowry muscled to the basket to slice the difference to two. A crazy sequence that started with a Lowry steal finished with a pair of Powell free throws to even it up with 2:33 to play.
Anunoby connected from three to put the Raptors ahead for good, Powell had a steal and a running layup to give Toronto four points of breathing room.
“Thank you, Norm. … That was cool. We needed that,” Lowry said.
