A very bad, bad, very bad 14 seconds

[td450]

With 14 seconds to go, Marcus Smart, who had up until then played as well as he ever has, is waiting for Giannis to shoot the second of two free throws from behind. When Giannis misses, he charges into the lane, stealing an easy rebound from Brown, who had Portis cleanly blocked out. Neither player gets the ball and Portis scores an easy putback.

Then with 11 seconds, Smart gets the inbound and decides to take matters into his own hands, despite the fact that there was plenty of time. Holliday takes the ball away from him in mid air and throws it off him and out of bounds. Bucks ball.

Then with 6 seconds to go, Smart inbounds, then gets the ball back cleanly from Horford.  Without any defensive pressure, Smart slightly bobbles the ball at the critical moment. Brown is ahead and open, but Smart can't get the obvious pass off. Holiday gambles, goes for the ball and takes it cleanly.

Game over. Ouch.

[Roy H.]

Yeah, Tatum was wide open on the final play, too.  The one where Marcus lost the ball bringing it up.

[pokeKingCurtis]

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game.

[jambr380]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

[td450]

Yeah, Tatum was wide open on the final play, too.  The one where Marcus lost the ball bringing it up.

Ohh! I went back and looked again. Tatum had no one near him! Tougher, but totally makeable pass. Tatum would have had the most room to shoot. Matthews had tripped and fell. There was no one close. I should add one more "bad".

[pokeKingCurtis]

Yeah, Tatum was wide open on the final play, too.  The one where Marcus lost the ball bringing it up.

Ohh! I went back and looked again. Tatum had no one near him! Tougher, but totally makeable pass. Tatum would have had the most room to shoot. Matthews had tripped and fell. There was no one close. I should add one more "bad".

The Where's Waldo of crap basketball.

If you squint you could see Payton slipping on a banana peel.

[td450]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

Except he didn't get it, and he was the one coming from behind the foul line and had the clear view. Brown couldn't see Smart, but Smart could see Brown.

In your picture, no Buck could have gotten that ball. Portis was behind Brown and didn't reach for the ball. Holliday was a full step behind Smart.

No one was going to get that ball except Brown and Smart should have seen that easily.

[Roy H.]

Yeah, Tatum was wide open on the final play, too.  The one where Marcus lost the ball bringing it up.

Ohh! I went back and looked again. Tatum had no one near him! Tougher, but totally makeable pass. Tatum would have had the most room to shoot. Matthews had tripped and fell. There was no one close. I should add one more "bad".

Yeah, for those that missed it:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jayson-tatum-wide-open-final-030500245.html

[Celtics2021]

I don't mind the Marcus shot that was blocked by Holliday.  The play was apparently broken, per Udoka.  Smart drove toward the basket, which is a good thing to do in the situation, and Holiday made an absolutely terrific play.  It happens.

The last play, well, that did suck.

[jambr380]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

Except he didn't get it, and he was the one coming from behind the foul line and had the clear view. Brown couldn't see Smart, but Smart could see Brown.

In your picture, no Buck could have gotten that ball. Portis was behind Brown and didn't reach for the ball. Holliday was a full step behind Smart.

No one was going to get that ball except Brown and Smart should have seen that easily.

You're kidding, right? Do you not see Holiday just in front of the bald guy's head. I don't really know how to post videos - so I'll just post this link to the video - but Smart totally faked out Holiday and jumped cleanly for the ball. If he doesn't do that, Holiday almost certainly is ending up with the ball there. https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/unq0c2/smh/

It's terrible terrible luck, but Smart's effort on that rebound should not be questioned.

[Redz]

Head is still spinning a bit.

[Celtics2021]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

Except he didn't get it, and he was the one coming from behind the foul line and had the clear view. Brown couldn't see Smart, but Smart could see Brown.

In your picture, no Buck could have gotten that ball. Portis was behind Brown and didn't reach for the ball. Holliday was a full step behind Smart.

No one was going to get that ball except Brown and Smart should have seen that easily.

You're kidding, right? Do you not see Holiday just in front of the bald guy's head. I don't really know how to post videos - so I'll just post this link to the video - but Smart totally faked out Holiday and jumped cleanly for the ball. If he doesn't do that, Holiday almost certainly is ending up with the ball there. https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/unq0c2/smh/

It's terrible terrible luck, but Smart's effort on that rebound should not be questioned.

It really was just terrible luck.  Most times a collision between teammates like that is going to see the ball go out bounds.  This time it went straight to Portis for an easy lay-up.

[dannyboy35]

  I can’t believe we’re losing to these guys when they have no defender for Tatum and brown. This is sad. What is difficult about attacking at the free throw line. All mental. Very mentally weak. PST Canaufgton, Wesley Matthews, Grayson Allen, Bobby Portis. These are the players we don’t continuously attack even after success. Really really dumb . Felt like Brad was coaching again.

[td450]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

Except he didn't get it, and he was the one coming from behind the foul line and had the clear view. Brown couldn't see Smart, but Smart could see Brown.

In your picture, no Buck could have gotten that ball. Portis was behind Brown and didn't reach for the ball. Holliday was a full step behind Smart.

No one was going to get that ball except Brown and Smart should have seen that easily.

You're kidding, right? Do you not see Holiday just in front of the bald guy's head. I don't really know how to post videos - so I'll just post this link to the video - but Smart totally faked out Holiday and jumped cleanly for the ball. If he doesn't do that, Holiday almost certainly is ending up with the ball there. https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/unq0c2/smh/

It's terrible terrible luck, but Smart's effort on that rebound should not be questioned.

Yes, I saw Holiday. Like Smart, he was not lined up in the lane, and was coming from above the foul line. If you rewatch it you will see that Smart just grabs him and throws him back. If a ref saw it, he'd have gotten a foul. Smart did that to get in front of Holiday.

I'm not saying he shouldn't have rushed in. He does that a lot and often makes plays. But he had a clear view of the play, he had gotten in front of Holiday and the C's had boxed out perfectly. He should have just let Jaylen grab the ball.

[td450]

I'm not defending how Smart played down the stretch, but that was all his rebound



Credit to SammD310 on Reddit for the pic

Except he didn't get it, and he was the one coming from behind the foul line and had the clear view. Brown couldn't see Smart, but Smart could see Brown.

In your picture, no Buck could have gotten that ball. Portis was behind Brown and didn't reach for the ball. Holliday was a full step behind Smart.

No one was going to get that ball except Brown and Smart should have seen that easily.

You're kidding, right? Do you not see Holiday just in front of the bald guy's head. I don't really know how to post videos - so I'll just post this link to the video - but Smart totally faked out Holiday and jumped cleanly for the ball. If he doesn't do that, Holiday almost certainly is ending up with the ball there. https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/unq0c2/smh/

It's terrible terrible luck, but Smart's effort on that rebound should not be questioned.

It really was just terrible luck.  Most times a collision between teammates like that is going to see the ball go out bounds.  This time it went straight to Portis for an easy lay-up.

Yes it was terrible luck.

But the other team was shooting. We had the inside positions on the blocks. Marcus was rushing in from behind the shooter. If you do that and your team is on the inside, you better be smart enough to read whether your teammates have position on the ball, because they usually will.

If you don't read the play, you end up just contesting your own teammates for the ball. That's what happened