The Boston Celtics needed some late-game heroics, courtesy of Jayson Tatum, to escape a ferocious effort from the 2-11 Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.
Tatum drilled a clutch game-winner in overtime, sealing a 126-123 victory for the Celtics after it seemed as though Toronto would pull off the upset and snag its first road win — the Raptors are 0-7 in away games this season. However, during that final play with 20 seconds left on the clock, Celtics co-star Jaylen Brown felt wronged by the officials.
Derrick White and Al Horford on the play set a pair of screens to try and give Brown space as he ran toward Tatum’s direction, but a right shoulder check from Toronto’s Davion Mitchell sent Brown to the ground.
“All game, like, the level of physicality, which I’m cool with to a certain extent but if you gonna allow them to put two hands and try to stop me, allow me to use my physical gifts as well,” Brown told reporters, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “I feel like all night they was just doing that, trying to knock you off. Davion (Mitchell’s) using two hands and 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 that we got the win.”
That left no time for Boston to improvise with Brown out of the picture, as with less than six seconds on the clock, Tatum fired away from 29 feet out and erupted TD Garden’s crowd.
Brown finished the night with a team-leading 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting with six rebounds, seven assists and a block. The 28-year-old also attempted 10 free throws, which led both teams. But upon second glance, it did seem as though Brown had a reason to bark at the officials who missed Mitchell’s schoolyard shove.
Boston nearly crumbled toward the end as Tatum shot 0-for-5 in the second half, missed the first game-winning attempt — wide open from midrange — in the fourth quarter, and fought off the void spawning from a 76-42 interior points advantage Toronto built. It was the second uncharacteristic performance the Celtics logged this week, but this time the defending NBA champions came away unscathed.
“I think overall we’re just giving up too many layups,” Brown said, per NBC Sports Boston. “And I feel like our defense could be better. I feel like they just shot way too many easy shots in the paint and that’s kind of been a theme so we gotta figure that out.”
