Jayson Tatum’s buzzer beater lifts Celtics over scrappy Raptors in OT: 9 takeaways
Tatum made the most out of a broken play to stun the Raptors and send the TD Garden into an uproar.
Jayson Tatum’s last-second heroics lifted the Celtics to a 126-123 overtime win over a Raptors team that refused to go away.
Here are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum made the best of a broken final possession.
Tatum rescued a bizarre final possession with a very deep, very contested triple.
Roughly 20 minutes earlier, on the final play of regulation, the Celtics ran an isolation set for Tatum, and he created a great look from about 15 feet, only to hit nothing but backboard, which sent the game to overtime.
After four minutes and 50 seconds of even scoring in overtime, the Celtics had the ball with just under 10 seconds remaining. They ran a set that gave Tatum the ball, then sent Derrick White to the corner to set the first of two screens for Jaylen Brown, who appeared to be the target of the play. Raptors guard Davion Mitchell slid under the White screen, then flew over the second screen from Horford. In doing so, he crashed into Brown and sent him flying.
The officials didn’t call anything, and with four seconds remaining, Tatum had to improvise. He went through a complicated series of dribble moves, then pulled back and launched from 28 feet.
Credit to Ochai Agbaji for a tough closeout. Credit to a Raptors team that had no business being as close as they were to the defending champs.
But most of all, of course, credit to Tatum, who made a very difficult shot and completely flipped a narrative about his clutch play after a bad brick to end regulation.
“I got a lot of problems in life,” Tatum said. “Confidence has never been one of them. I’ve worked too hard at my craft and played too much basketball to ever doubt the next shot.”
Joe Mazzulla noted that most people miss most game-winning shot attempts.
“So just have a perspective of understanding you have to be willing to take it, and when you don’t make it, you have to be willing to shoot the next one,” Mazzulla said. “He has the work ethic, the mental toughness to work through all those things, and you just got to rely on the work ethic that you put in, and he does that.”
Tatum finished just short of a triple-double with 24 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, shooting 7-for-19 from the floor.
Jaylen Brown certainly looked like he got fouled.
In the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter much obviously, given what Tatum did seconds later.
But the Last Two Minute report from Saturday’s game might be worth a glance for Celtics fans just to confirm that Brown did indeed get leveled by Mitchell.
“I honestly thought they were going to call a foul,” Tatum said. “I really paused for a second. I thought it was going to be a late whistle, just from my view running off the double-screen pindown — he got knocked off balance and I thought it was going to be a foul.
Brown thought so too, although he said he was fine with the physical nature of the game.
Still: “If you’re going to allow them to use two hands and try to stop me, allow me to use my physical gifts as well,” he said. “And I feel like all night, they were just doing that, just trying to knock you off balance using two hands. I shot a decent amount of free throws tonight so I’m not really upset about it, but that last play I thought was a foul for sure. But I’m just glad we got the win.”
Brown was a natural choice for the last shot: He had made two 3-pointers in the overtime period prior to the final possession, and he led the Celtics in scoring overall with 27 points on 8-for-16 shooting (including a 9-for-10 performance at the free-throw line). He also dished out seven assists, including a nifty one with under a minute remaining in regulation that drew the Celtics even at 114.
Brown said the hip flexor that cost him four games earlier this month is feeling better.
“I’m feeling more and more like myself,” Brown said. “I’m moving better both ways. I’m still not quite 100 percent but any pain that I have, it’s manageable. Before it was kind of like limiting me, now I feel a lot better.”
Al Horford got hot late.
On a night when the Celtics’ offense was scuffling badly, Al Horford pitched in several big baskets late. He scored and was fouled on a hook with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, then buried a 3-pointer a minute later. With 1:45 left, he drained another triple. In overtime, he assisted on one of Jaylen Brown’s two 3-pointers.
“He’s a guy where a lot of his offensive stuff comes just depending upon how the defense is guarding him,” Mazzulla said. “And he lets the offense come to him, continues to compete defensively, but you can always count that he’s going to make a play when it’s time to make a play.”
The Celtics shot just 34.4 percent from 3-point range on their 61 (61!) attempts from deep, and Horford’s 5-for-10 performance behind the arc helped keep the Celtics’ numbers respectable.
Jakob Pöltl and R.J. Barrett gave the Celtics fits.
Pöltl scored a new career high, punishing the Celtics in the paint with 35 points on 16-for-19 shooting. He repeatedly took advantage of physical mismatches, flipping in a series of floaters that were not nearly as easy as he made them look. On several occasions, Pöltl took advantage of the Celtics’ lackluster interior defense — making himself available for a driving guard when the Celtics’ big rotated over to cut off a drive to the rim. Rather than rolling to the basket, Pöltl took advantage of all of his space and simply tossed in a little baby hook.
“It’s a unique situation, right?” Mazzulla said. “Because if you were in a certain coverage, you’re going to give that shot up. If you’re in a different coverage, you’re more susceptible to offensive rebounds.
“So they’re a tricky matchup because of those things. And when it’s a one- or two-possession game, that shot is probably the highest value shot that you could get on the court on both teams, because he’s so good at it.”
R.J. Barrett, meanwhile, recorded his first career triple-double with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists. He was inefficient from the field (10-for-27), but he effectively orchestrated a lot of Toronto’s offense and made a huge three late in regulation with the shot clock winding down that kept the Celtics from pulling away.
The Raptors as a whole, dominating the points in the paint, outscoring the Celtics 76-42, although Mazzulla might accuse us of being sensationalist by pointing it out.
“That number is a little skewed, because it’s Jakob Pöltl,” he said. “So you have to go 76 minus 35 because he shoots floaters from inside the dots, and that’s a shot that you’re willing to give up over time. Those are all technically in the paint, and so some of those you have to give up.
“So do we have to get better at it? Yeah, 76, I know it’s a number that generates a lot of headlines, and you’ll be able to use that later tonight in your articles, but I would say probably about half of those are because of the coverage that you’re going to play on a guy like him throughout a game.
Mazzulla added that the Celtics do need to give up fewer offensive rebounds (the Raptors pulled down 15 on Saturday), and they need to defend better individually.
“He’s a bear down there, though,” Mazzulla continued on Pöltl. “He’s good. I mean, he’s good. It’s one of those situations — if you play one coverage, he’s going to shoot that. If you play a different one, he’s going to bury you on the glass. So he puts teams in a bind. He’s a good player.”
Sam Hauser had a season-first.
In the second quarter, Sam Hauser — who was struggling from 3-point range by that point — came flying off a pick-and-roll, took a couple of bumps from Gradey Dick, and then banked in a tough runner plus the foul.
The play was particularly notable because Hauser hadn’t attempted or made a free throw yet this season.
“I wonder if he’s nervous,” NBC Sports Boston color analyst Brian Scalabrine wondered as Hauser went through his free-throw routine for the first time this season.
If Hauser was nervous, he didn’t show it: He knocked down the free throw.
Hauser finished with 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting, including 3-for-10 from three.
Neemias Queta got another start.
Queta finished with 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting. His only misses were a gimme tip-in that he rolled over the rim and corner 3-pointer in overtime when Tatum got stuck and needed to get rid of the ball as time wound down.
The Celtics seem to be at their best with Queta when they involve him in the play as the screener rather than hot potatoing the ball to him for a 3-pointer down by a point with 1:36 remaining. Queta sets really good screens, and he was the target of three successful lobs on Saturday.
Queta’s rise from a two-way player to a regular part of the defending champion Celtics’ rotation has been one of the more compelling storylines of the Celtics’ season so far.
Derrick White gave out his new beer after the game.
In case you missed it, Derrick White now has an ale with Samuel Adams, and he handed some out to Celtics employees after Saturday’s win.
The Celtics’ new jerseys were … something.
Before the game, Joe Mazzulla was asked what he thinks of the new jerseys.
“Yeah, they’re nice,” Mazzulla said briskly.
Why?
“They say ‘Celtics’ on them,” Mazzulla said.
Fair enough. The take here is that the Celtics aren’t really a team that look particularly good in neon green, especially juxtaposed against the shade of green in the paint and around the court.
For what it’s worth, the players said they liked the look, although we would contend that it would be odd if they said anything else.
A huge showdown looms
The Celtics once again have two days off between games, but their next one is a doozy: They will take on the as-of-yet undefeated Cavaliers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. as group play continues in their Emirates NBA Cup bracket. The Cavaliers need to beat the Hornets on Sunday to maintain their undefeated status before taking on the Celtics.
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