Celtics come alive late to defeat Nets in overtime

On the defensive end, the Celtics were lucky – two players chased down Cam Thomas, who released Cam Johnson for an open 3-pointer. The Nets sharpshooter missed, but he got the ball and was fouled by Tatum. Johnson made both, and Tatum’s last-second shot bounced off the rim, sending the game to the extra frame.

Tatum took another technique.

Tatum may be technically inclined, and he picked up his fourth of the season in just 10 games on Friday.

To be fair to Tatum, he had a somewhat fair case: He appeared to have an open dunk in transition before Nic Claxton came in to block it. Tatum, however, felt he was fouled, and a replay showed he may have been right – Claxton didn’t appear to have completed the challenge. Tatum made a scene and blew the whistle for the technical point.

Before the match, Joe Mazzulla dismissed concerns about Tatum’s technical count, noting that he wasn’t that far behind (Mazzulla has one), and that Tatum probably won’t maintain his torrid technical pace.

Still, he’s currently on pace to finish with 32 for the season, which would result in a bunch of suspensions, which start piling up at 16.

The Celtics struggled from three.

The Celtics thrive when their 3-point shooters can create and take advantage of space, but they struggled to find range on Friday, which is part of the reason the Nets were able to keep pace. Tatum shot 5 of 13 from behind the arc and Pritchard shot 3 of 7, but the rest of the team shot just 6 of 33 (18%).

Al Horford was 3 for 9, Derrick White was 1 for 6 and Jrue Holiday was 0 for 4. Sam Hauser may have struggled the most – just 2 for 10, although he did hit a huge triple in the last sequence.

Hauser contributed in other ways.

Hauser contributed in many ways besides shooting, especially on the defensive end. He recorded three steals, and when Nets isolation players like Cam Thomas and Dennis Schröder tried to attack him specifically, he generally held his own.

And when he finally broke through, his relief was palpable.

“If Sam is open, if he’s not, we still want him to be a threat,” Tatum said. “Not necessarily like shooting every time, but we trust Sam so much that we were mad at him when he missed and he was mad at himself. Al was yelling at him on the bench, ‘Yo, never lower your head.

“We always think the next one is coming because he is a very proven shooter and he works very hard at his craft. So no, I never say to myself, “Oh, shit, Sam just missed his last two shots, I’m not about to pass it to him.” No, I would never think that.

Mazzulla noted that the statistics will likely soon work in Hauser’s favor.

“1-for-9 just means he’ll have a 6-for-10 game here soon,” Mazzulla said. “So it’s just part of the game. He generated some great looks.” He has a good appearance. He has to shoot them. The guys have to hand it over to him and we move on.

Jrue Holiday posted.

With Jaylen Brown once again out (and 3-point attempts chipping the paint at the rim all night), the Celtics needed some offense inside the arc from someone, and Holiday provided 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He stationed Dennis Schröder and Cam Thomas in the paint, and he created space for a few layups. The Celtics scored just two baskets in the first six minutes, and both were Holiday layups.

“It’s just a Swiss army knife,” Mazzulla said. “I mean, he doesn’t really care about his submodel. He doesn’t care. He just plays hard. He does not allow things to affect his efforts.

“I thought midway through the first quarter and the second quarter he made some physical plays that kind of got us back in it and allowed us to kind of be in that space. So he just has the ability to impact the game in different ways, and he’s always looking for ways to do that.

Xavier Tillman started (it didn’t go well).

Instead of Neemias Queta, the Celtics opened with Tillman — perhaps in an attempt to match Queta with Ben Simmons’ minutes, which would give Queta a chance to roam freely as a shot blocker.

Tillman struggled a bit on both ends, and the Nets largely ignored him defensively – opting to abandon the open 3-pointer he wanted in favor of clogging up the paint for the rest of the game. Celtics. Tillman only played six minutes before sitting, and he didn’t return the rest of the way, finishing 0 of 3 from behind the arc.

A reporter asked Mazzulla if Tillman and Jordan Walsh missed 3-point shots.

“At the end of the day, they just need to feel empowered to be able to film when they’re open,” he said. “They work on it every day. I watch them do it. I trust them, and obviously you want to pass and move the ball, but when you pass up a first look, as good as NBA defenses are, it’s harder to generate them late down the stretch, and so they just have to keep being understanding and empowered, I want them to shoot when they’re open.

It is time (Lord).

Robert Williams missed a year of basketball, but in an 11-minute comeback, he scored 13 points, made all four of his free throw attempts, grabbed three rebounds, dished out an assist and recorded two steals and a block.

He also made the first 3-point basket of his career.