BSJ Game Report: Celtics 101, Kings 100 - C's reserves finish game, saved by Tillman's floater

THINGS I LIKED

- Experimentation: What a perfect game to try new things. I’ll get into it more separately, but this was a great use of this game. 

- Payton Pritchard: A really nice game and a great chance for him to be the focal point of the opposing defense down the stretch. He finished with 21 points and he was the only Celtic hitting from 3. He was 5-10 on the night while everyone else was 6-34.

- Xavier Tillman: A solid night for him and his first game-winner since college. “I knew it was good as soon as it left my hand,” he said after the game, which was great because it was Boston’s first field goal since the 6:44 mark. 

- Kristaps Porzingis: Oh yeah, he played. He put up 20 points in 24 minutes, carrying the Celtics offense as they built their big lead. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Sam Hauser’s shooting: Rough night for him from the field, going 1-18 overall and 1-13 from 3. Pritchard chose the positive spin on Hauser’s night. 

“I almost look at this like it's a good thing,” Pritchard said. “Sam is to me the best catch-and-shoot shooter in the league. This is going to come back around. He can go like 10-for-10 like we've seen. … (if) he shoots normally, this is a 20-point game. So I think this is a good sign, so that means the next couple games, he's going to be on fire."

- Giving up the lead: Look, I’m not going to kill this group of guys for losing a lead to the Kings. All I’m going to say is someone needed to hit a shot, somehow, some way, in those 6:37. There were plenty of makeable ones in there for sure, but someone has to find a way to make one in more than half a quarter. 

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- A timeout ruined the Kings' chances to win

I need to highlight this just people can understand Mazzulla’s strategies a bit better. Tillman scored with 7.4 second left, giving Fox enough time to get the inbounds pass and try to make a play. 

Here’s what he faced. 

Both he and Domantas Sabonis were signaling to hold off the timeout, and when Mike Brown called it, Sabonis threw his hands on his head and dropped into a crouch. 

They knew they had Brissett already behind the play, Pritchard flat-footed on one side of the floor and two Celtics mashed together on the other. Fox is lightning fast, so it only would have taken him a couple of seconds to get up the floor. 

If nothing was there, fine, call the timeout. But against this Celtics defense, with this group of guys, the stage was set for Fox to be a hero. By calling the timeout, it allowed the Celtics to prepare and set a defense. Under different circumstances, Mazzulla could have put more defenders on the floor as well. 

The timeout there was the wrong move. Brown even recognized it after he called it. So did Mazzulla. 

“I didn’t think they were going to call a timeout,” he said. “I thought Fox had the ball on the run with the ability to go score a layup, so I was screaming at our team to try to get into our late-game defense, full-court defense because I thought Fox was wide open … so I was fully anticipating them just getting the ball and going down and running, and so I thought that would have been worst-case scenario. So then when they called it, we were just able to execute - figure out what we wanted to do defensively.”

Next up: The Celtics host Portland on Sunday at 6 p.m.