Keys to the Game: Raptors 104, Celtics 103

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Kemba Walker fed Daniel Theis for a tie-breaking dunk just before the final buzzer Thursday night, giving the Boston Celtics a 103-101 advantage over the Toronto Raptors with just a half-second to spare in Game 3.

Then, the unthinkable happened: trailing by two points with just that half-second remaining, Toronto found a way to win the game.

Following Theis’ dunk, the Raptors called a timeout to advance the ball to center-court, where Kyle Lowry took inbounding duties. Boston sent in 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall to guard the 6-foot point guard, but the human wall didn’t get in Lowry’s way.

From the right sideline, Lowry launched a rainbow pass all the way over to the left corner, where OG Anunoby had managed to find his way open. Anunoby caught the ball, pushed it off his hands like a hot potato over the outstretched hands of Jaylen Brown, and watched as it miraculously fell through the net.

Further review showed that Anunoby got the ball off his fingertips at the 0.1-second mark, which allowed the Raptors to celebrate a 104-103 win while narrowly avoiding falling into a 3-0 series deficit.

After failing to make a field goal during the first half of Game 2, Kemba Walker responded in Game 3 with one of his best first halves in a Celtics uniform.

Walker came out of the gate on fire, as he scored 17 points of his team's 33 points during the first quarter. He tallied four more in the scoring column during the second frame, finishing the half with 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field.

Walker finished the game with a team-high 29 points while shooting 9-of-15 from the field, 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. He also corralled three rebounds, dished out three assists, and snagged three steals, while logging a team-best plus-11 rating during 39 minutes of action.

Brad Stevens