The Boston Celtics and their longtime rival, the Philadelphia 76ers, squared off in another close game on Wednesday night. With 34 seconds remaining, the Celtics were down six points, but Jaylen Brown hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to three. In the next possession, Brown forced an airball off the offensive board by swatting Tyrese Maxey’s pull-up shot. With seven seconds remaining in the game, this provided the Celtics a chance to force overtime.
Fans would think that the ball would go to Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ undisputed best player. Even the Sixers knew this, denying Tatum the ball on the inbounds. The Celtics then decided to throw the ball to Kristaps Porzingis, the team’s leading scorer on the night, with Porzingis creating for himself an open shot by faking Tobias Harris out of his shoes.
However, Porzingis’ three-ball came up short, and the Celtics ended up losing their second consecutive game in heartbreaking fashion once more. After the game, the 7’3 big man admitted that he may have erred in his shooting mechanics on his game-tying attempt, which was especially apparent since his shot barely grazed the front iron.
“As I went into the shot, I went into it as if it was a midrange shot and jumped higher. I don’t usually do that,” Porzingis said in his postgame presser, via Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
That, indeed, was what happened, as that ball would have swished through the net had Kristaps Porzingis shot the ball from about three feet closer to the hoop. Nevertheless, Celtics fans won’t be salty at all towards Porzingis for missing that shot, as he was the team’s most consistent offensive weapon against the Sixers for most of the night, finishing with 29 points on 10-19 shooting. More importantly, it’s not as though Porzingis forced the shot; it simply did not go down.
As they begin their NBA In-Season Tournament adventure, the Celtics will have a chance to get back to winning ways on Friday night when they host the Brooklyn Nets at home.
