How the Celtics snatched victo...

MIAMI — Jayson Tatum tried to walk us through it. He sat on a podium Saturday night in the bowels of Kaseya Center, and he did his best to offer a chapter-and-verse recollection of what, from his perspective, transpired in the fastest three seconds of his life.

It’s tough to give the straight story, though, when you just can’t stop smiling.

“Oooh-whee. Oh, my God,” Tatum said, rubbing his forehead and temples. “That was incredible.”

It had been just over an hour since he’d had a front-row seat to watch Derrick White beat the fourth-quarter buzzer with a game-winning tip-in — a soaring offensive rebound of Marcus Smart’s missed 3-pointer that snatched Game 6 from Miami’s grasp, made the Celtics just the fourth team in NBA history to come back from 3-0 down to force a Game 7, and gives Boston the chance to become the first team ever to complete the comeback when they take the court at TD Garden on Monday night. That wasn’t quite enough time to get his arms around it all.

“Man, we drew up a play,” he continued, trying his best to answer the pressing question of what the hell just happened. “They kind of took away that — I was trying to get the ball. Jimmy [Butler] and [Max] Strus jumped out to me, Smart came and shot it, and we just crashed the glass. Everything was like a blur after that. D-White tipped it in, but that felt like the longest 10 seconds ever, waiting for confirmation if he made it or not.”

OK, that’s enough sober recounting, Jayson. Back to Big Feelings.

“I'm still, like, in disbelief,” said Tatum, who scored a game-high 31 points to go with 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks, a steal and some stellar defense on Butler in the 104-103 Game 6 win. “That s*** was crazy.”

That’s also how it felt on the Heat bench, where Erik Spoelstra watched as the defensive strategy he drew up — Strus turning his back to the inbounding White in favor of being able to jump out to help Butler deny Tatum a chance to catch and shoot, and forcing the ball to anyone else — worked. Until, y’know, it didn’t.

“Ideally, you would think, you hope you do the right things,” Spoelstra said. “That thing just bounced a different way. That's the only place [the ball] could have bounced to hurt us. I thought we had a lot of things covered on that play, and sometimes things just don't break your way. I don't think there's any regrets on that. It's just a shame.”

No regrets, perhaps, but maybe just a tinge of sorrow that carried over to the Miami locker room. We’ve heard plenty about how Butler serves as the Heat’s DJ, curating the vibe after wins and losses alike. Before Butler came into the locker room, though, it was guard Gabe Vincent — who’d missed Game 5 with a sprained left ankle before resolving to give it a go on Saturday and playing 41 minutes in his return — who queued up a tune while he got dressed. His choice? “Life Goes On” by Ed Sheeran.

Asked if the song had any particular message, Vincent paused before answering, “I’m going to say no, just because I feel like that has a negative connotation. We’re looking forward. We’re a group of competitors, and you couldn’t ask for anything more.” Even so: On a night where you had a chance to go to the NBA Finals and lose by 1 at the buzzer, it’s kind of hard not to read into the choice of a song that opens with the lyrics, “It hit like a train, I ran out of words / I got nothing to say, everything hurts.”

The Smart-miss bounce and White’s subsequent pounce saved a Celtics team that had controlled most of Game 6 and led by 10 with 4:55 to go, only to tighten up late and concede a 15-4 Heat run. That stretch saw the Celtics miss 9-of-10 field-goal attempts and send the continually struggling Butler to the line 10 times — the final three of which came after Al Horford fouled Butler on a desperation 3-point attempt in the right corner, putting Miami up 103-102.

“In all honesty, at that point, I'm in full prayer mode,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds (including five on the offensive glass), three assists and two steals. “Whatever prayer I got, whatever dua I got, reciting it over and over in my head. I knew our season was on the brink.”

It initially appeared that Horford fouled Butler with 2.1 seconds remaining. After an official review to determine whether Butler’s feet were behind the 3-point arc, though, the clock was reset to 3.0 seconds, giving Boston a few extra tenths of a tick to work with. White, who had drifted to the left corner after inbounding the ball when he realized he wasn’t being defended, ensured they made the most of them.

To their credit, Butler and Adebayo continued to grind through those struggles, combining for 13 assists and 14 offensive rebounds; just when it looked like Boston was about to put the Heat to bed, Butler dug deep, began attacking the basket with reckless abandon and outscored the Celtics by himself over the final five minutes to give Miami a chance to close out the series.

“When I talk about our team's competitive will, we are following Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Their will is incredible,” Spoelstra said. “I don't give a damn what they shot. We were up one.”

Until they weren’t.

“Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man,” Brown said.

And now, a Heat team that was a literal second away from advancing has to pick itself up off the canvas and, for the second straight year, play a Game 7 against the Celtics — this time, having lost three straight and on the verge of a historic collapse.

“This group’s pretty much been here before, you know? We’re just running it back,” Vincent said. “It’s almost storybook. It’s almost like it’s supposed to be this way.”

After surviving three straight closeout games, Tatum sat at the podium positively beaming, like a man who finally sees his storybook ending within his grasp.

“I've never been so excited to go back to Boston in my life,” he said.