Celtics blow 24-point lead en route to overtime loss in New Orleans

This time they woke up fresh — no French Quarter beignets for the Celtics, their horrible daytime experiences considered. This time the drain didn’t appear until the second half, much to their mercurial frustration.

The Celtics, after leading by as many as 24 points, gave it all up in the second half of their 120-115 overtime loss to New Orleans.

The let-up resulted in the largest comeback in Pelicans franchise history.

The Celtics had a chance to avert disaster when Jayson Tatum’s running floater with two-tenths of a second left in regulation sent the game into overtime in a 108-108 tie.

The Celtics started overtime with Rob Williams and Daniel Theis up front, and the former immediately scored off a Jaylen Brown lob. Williams was also called for a goaltend down the other end.

Theis fouled Zion Williamson with 3:06 left, and the Pelicans star broke the tie when he hit one of two.

Brown missed from downtown, Lonzo Ball followed suit, and the Pelicans successfully challenged a call on Ball on the other end. Coach Brad Stevens protested, to no avail, that New Orleans coach Stan Van Gundy challenged the play too late.

Williams won the jump ball from Williamson, but Kemba Walker missed, and after Williams blocked Williamson with a thunderous play, Brown converted down the other end for a 112-111 Celtics lead with 1:02 left.

Brandon Ingram — trouble all day, he finished with a game-high 33 points — was fouled at the rim, and with 50.1 seconds left, hit once, and when Theis and Nik Miele were called for a double lane violation, nullifying the second free throw, the Pelicans won the jump ball.

Ingram followed with a 3-pointer, Walker missed from the top of the circle, and with 18.5 seconds left Josh Hart gave New Orleans a 117-112 lead with two free throws.

Brown was fouled by Ingram attempting a desperation trey, and cut the Pelicans lead to 117-115 with three free throws with 11.8 seconds left.

The Pelicans inbounded and Hart, fouled, missed the first and hit the second with 8.3 seconds left for a 118-115 New Orleans edge.

Tatum got the inbounds pass and, intentionally fouled, missed the first free throw, then intentionally missed the second but didn’t hit the rim, handing the ball back over to New Orleans.

Ingram did major damage late in the rally, steppingd into an up-top 3-pointer with 4:10 left, tying the score at 98-98. The Pelicans forward, along with the combined aggression of Williamson and Hart, had just brought New Orleans back from what, at one point, was a 24-point Celtics lead.

Tatum missed out of a post-up, the Celtics momentarily lost the lead to a Miele 3-pointer, and the Celtics forward came right back to tie it, also from downtown.

Williamson scored again at the expense of Brown for a 103-101 New Orleans lead, and with 1:57 left Hart hit once from the line for a three-point lead.

But Brown slashed back with a three-point play, again tying the score. New Orleans came up empty, Tatum front-rimmed a fadeaway, Hart missed from the corner, and with 44 seconds left the Celtics called timeout again.

Walker missed from downtown and Lonzo Ball, fouled after a long rebound, took the lead back (105-104) with 31.5 seconds left with a free throw.

Brown missed on a drive — video review gave the ball back to the Celtics with 15.7 seconds left — and with 10.5 seconds left Tatum jab-stepped his way to a foul line jumper over Hart for a 106-105 Celtics lead.

But Williamson bulled over Tristan Thompson for the layup and a free throw for a 108-106 lead with 6.9 seconds left.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Mb3emq