With 21 seconds to go, the Celtics had the ball up 3 and were set to inbound after a Trae Young technical foul.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Jrue Holiday had a wide-open layup to bury Atlanta and put the Celtics up 105-100 with about 16 seconds to go. Take the layup! Why is he dribbling the ball away from the basket, Especially into the corner where something bad will likely happen?
Anyways, he does and then turns the ball over while attempting a pass to Jaylen Brown.
The Hawks get the ball, the Celtics foul and Trae Young makes a pair of free throws. Fouling up 3 is always the correct decision; I don’t understand why some coaches don’t do it.
The Celtics get the ball back and catch a break because Jayson Tatum was fouled as he was falling out of bounds.
Then, Tatum stepped to the line, making the first.
The second…
Tatum, an 80% free throw shooter, had not missed one all night so he was likely due for a miss. However, that doesn’t excuse it. You have to make your free throws. Barstool’s Dan Greenberg was ready to have a breakdown.
FTs are important. I cannot believe Tatum missed
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) January 19, 2025
He is right but okay, the Celtics were still up 2 with 7.9 seconds left and the Hawks had no timeouts.
In the most shocking play of the night, Jrue Holiday fouled Young as he was bringing the ball up the court.
He clearly grabs his wrist in what looks like an intentional foul. However, Joe Mazzulla said it was not after the game.
Joe Mazzulla said Jrue Holiday’s foul wasn’t intentional and that they have to have better late-game execution (and consistency throughout): pic.twitter.com/dM7b0xJoKH
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) January 19, 2025
But it sure looked like Holiday grabbed his wrist on purpose. It looks like Holiday did not know the score, which cannot happen in that situation. I am not saying he thought the Celtics were up 3, but I can’t think of another reason that he would have fouled there.
After Young made both free throws, the Celtics got the ball with 3.5 seconds to go.
They inbounded to Tatum and NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine called it out on the broadcast that Onyeka Okongwu is able to affect Tatum’s catch because he is cheating off of Neemias Queta who is clearly not going to get the ball. Why is Queta even on the court? Mazzulla had gone with a lineup of Pritchard, Holiday, White, Brown and Tatum for earlier possessions and if he wanted a big man out there, but why not Luke Kornet? He is a far better offensive player than Queta is.
I just don’t understand why Joe loves Queta so much, he constantly gets lost on defense and is a bad defensive rebounder.
Anyways, Tatum missed the shot and we headed to overtime, where the Celtics lost.
In overtime, there was an offensive rebound that Okongwu got after of a pair of missed free throws with the C’s down one. Another mistake by the Celtics and it was Queta who was out of position on this one that allowed for Okongwu to grab the rebound.
It is infuriating to lose a game like this, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It has happened too much recently for the Celtics.
They have not played well enough in the 4th quarter of games as of late and they need to figure it out.
I think they’ll be okay, this is still an elite team that won the championship last season but that does not make this not frustrating. We know the Celtics can win games like this — we saw them do it in the playoffs a season ago. They just need to find it and figure this out.
