Since a defeat in Denver on March 7, head coach Joe Mazzulla had not used his ideal starting lineup of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis.
The Celtics’ clutch play has garnered a lot of attention this week, and with just over five minutes remaining, they led 102-101, making it clear that this game would be another test of Boston’s will. Following an Atlanta four-point lead, White and Tatum responded with consecutive three-pointers. After two failed attempts at free throws by De’Andre Hunter, Brown made a challenging mid-range pullup, and Bogdan Bogdanovic answered with a powerful three of his own. After an offensive rebound, Bogdanovic made another massive 3-pointer to tie the game.
In overtime, Dejounte Murray hit three straight middies over Porzingis and another from behind the arc, en route to a career high 44 points on 18-of-44 shooting.
With the game on the line, it was Brown with the potential game-winning shot. Here’s Tom Haberstroh on why that might have been the right decision.
And in what has been a point of contention with fans, Tatum opted to isolate with the final possession of regulation and missed a fade away jumper to send the game to overtime.
After a closely contested battle that required OT to separate the two sides, the Celtics thought they had the game won when All-Star wing Jaylen Brown drilled a tough contested midrange shot to put Boston up by one with just over six seconds to go.
Murray then took matters into his own hands, isolating against lauded defender Jrue Holiday and rising up to shoot the
game-winning field goal, which found the bottom of the bucket with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
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