There are 15 seconds left in the game between the Celtics and the Hawks. Boston regained a three-point lead (103-100) following a technical foul by Trae Youngfurious with the referees following a loss of ball by Onyeka Okongwu, the Atlanta playmaker believing that Jayson Tatum had fouled his teammate…
In short, Joe Mazzulla’s players are at +3, with the ball in hand, with 15 seconds on the clock. The match is won, especially since Jrue Holiday is served in the opposing racket, almost alone.
The rest will be a succession of bad choices on the part of the double NBA champion. Instead of going to the circle to put his team at +5, he moves away from the basket to eat up the clock, and transmits the ball to Jaylen Brown facing the Hawks’ two-man take. Result: the Celtics lose the ball!
Jrue Holiday then commits a foul on Trae Young, who brings his team to one point (103-102) and while Jayson Tatum leaves a free throw on the way, the Celtics leader commits another foul on Trae Young, who equalizes free throws and sends the two teams into overtime (104-104). And Boston will end up losing…
“This defeat is for me”
Following the match, Joe Mazzulla defended Jrue Holiday, whose mistakes were costly.
-“If things go wrong, we will always think” explains the coach on his player’s decision not to go to the circle with 15 seconds remaining. “There was an action last year in Memphis. He had just arrived, we were trying to set up our attack at the end of the match and he lost the ball. That probably explains the situation. »
The coach repeats that the Celtics did not lose the match in this sequence, and that his player “made what he thought was the best possible decision” At this point in the match, his last foul on Trae Young seems inexplicable. Did Jrue Holiday think that the Celtics were +3 and therefore tried to prevent, in advance, the opposing playmaker from shooting 3-pointers to equalize? Facing the press, he assured that no and that he had simply made a stupid mistake at the worst moment of the match.
“I thought we won the game” concludes the former Pelicans and Bucks. “I need to do better things. Make a better pass to JB, or maybe just keep the ball and make the throws because then everything is different. If I don’t foul Trae, we’re still at +2. This defeat is for me.”
Related News :