LeBron James scored a key bucket in the paint that put Miami up two with :48 left. Paul Pierce would later tie it and… well… we know what happened to end regulation.
But it should never have gotten to that point. The referees blew an OBVIOUS traveling call on LeBron James on that bucket. It's something Rob Mahoney illustrates perfectly on Hardwood Paroxysm.
It's impossible to predict how the game would have finished had this been called. Its possible the Celtics would have missed their next shot and Miami would have won at the buzzer. But given recent history, it's also very likely that the Celtics could have scored to go up 2 and put the pressure on Miami to tie the game.
We know how they've closed out games when they've been behind. Hell, LeBron choked and turned it over to give the C's a chance at the win.
I will always say that if it came down to a ref's call, then you probably could have done something else to win the game (Ray's missed tech FT, Rondo's missed layup, botching the final shot of the 4th). But it would still be nice if the refs at least made the OBVIOUS call.
Honestly… this is just a kick in the balls to know this could have ended differently in regulation.
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