Kristaps Porzingis was vocal about Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla showing emotions and getting angry at one point in the game saying his team needed it after their lack of effort. The 3-9 Memphis Grizzlies were missing nine players including former Celtic Marcus Smart. They hung around all game in what was mostly a mess of one from both teams.
Jayson Tatum found Porzingis on a cut as he dunked it home to give Boston 102 points, then it became hectic again. When the Celtics got the ball back, Tatum attempted his post-up fade away on Memphis’ Desmond Bane that just missed as Derrick White grabbed the board. He gave it back to Tatum, who then found Jrue Holiday for a wide open lane down the middle, but he missed the lefty jam. Boston could have held it to get fouled with under 13 seconds to go.
Santi Aldama missed a wide open triple down the other end as Ziare Williams took the offensive rebound and attempted a jumper in front of Boston’s bench that Porzingis swatted for the win. Boston stole one for their sixth-straight win 102-100.
Mazzulla talked about the craziness of this games close-out that the Celtics had just survived in.
“We got lucky to win that game,” Mazzulla said. “We talk about it a lot on both, you can win from losses, you can learn from losses, you can learn from wins, and sometimes you’re okay with the loss because you did the right things and sometimes you’re pissed because you didn’t deserve to win. And I didn’t think we deserved to win the game because of a lot of the stuff that we did.”
