On the second night of a back-to-back, the Brooklyn Nets had the Boston Celtics on the ropes after pulling out a miraculous comeback near the end of regulation. Down by one, 124-123, the Celtics got the ball back with 2.3 seconds remaining in the contest. Everyone in the building knew where the ball was going — and Jayson Tatum still delivered.
The Celtics executed their inbounds play well and forced Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. to switch on to Tatum. Tatum then took two quick dribbles to his left, pulled up for a sweet midrange shot, and swished it through the net right at the buzzer to give Boston a 125-124 victory.
The road the Celtics took to get to this point was quite remarkable. The Nets stunned them towards the end of the fourth when Brown made the three, and Brooklyn was in control for most of the extra period.
But the Nets' inexperience showed during the final few seconds. They held a one-point lead with the shot clock off, and Brown, instead of just holding on to the ball after catching the inbounds pass, went up for a layup. This was a high-risk play, and Brown, who already missed a layup on the previous play, smoked another one, which then set up the Celtics' opportunity to win the game.
Tatum had to take on a huge workload despite being on the second night of a back-to-back, which is a sign of good health. With his game-winning shot, he finished the contest with 40 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field (2-of-7 from deep) and 18-of-22 shooting from the charity stripe.
This is a continuation of Tatum's strong bounce-back from his horrid shooting night in the Celtics' season-opening loss to the Detroit Pistons. Since then, the Celtics star has been averaging 33 points on 49.2% shooting from the field.
With this latest victory, the Celtics have moved to 3-1 on the new campaign. Meanwhile, the Nets remain winless, and this is the most heartbreaking defeat of their season thus far.