One of the best plays of the season was a millisecond or two from reaching the state of immortality, but the Boston Celtics would gladly take it.
The Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 110-107 on Saturday in a home-and-away game that ended in a tie with 5.9 seconds remaining. It was Boston’s ball and the team predictably chose to put the last shot in the hands of Jason Tatum.
Tatum hit a three-pointer to put the Celtics up 3 with 1.3 seconds remaining. The Sixers didn’t have any timeouts left, so they quickly got the ball in to Joel Embiid, who dribbled once and then threw a three-quarter field that somehow got in.
It would have been one of the wildest finishes in NBA history… had the officials not immediately waved from the basket because Embiid released the ball a split second after the buzzer sounded. Embiid didn’t disagree with them, even as the Wells Fargo Center crowd went to celebrate with what they thought was an inconceivably connected game.
Fortunately, Mike Brin was on the call.
Even without the final shot, it was another big game from Embiid, who scored 41 points on 12-of-21 shooting with 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
Meanwhile, Tatum finished with 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting along with 13 rebounds and six assists. for every ESPN Stats & InfoTatum has made nine game-tying or go-ahead field goals in the last five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in the past five seasons, the most in the NBA.
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