SAN FRANCISCO — For all the Celtics’ faults down the stretch of Tuesday’s game against the Warriors — missing plenty of open looks — they had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation. They forced Chris Paul into a tough jumper that didn’t go down as the C’s got the potential final possession of the game.
C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said he considered taking a timeout to set up the final play. But Jayson Tatum came up to get the ball, so he elected to let the clock run instead of letting the Warriors set their defense. Tatum just needed to beat Jonathan Kuminga for the potential game-winning bucket. Tatum made his move, but the final result was a contested jumper with a foot on the line that hit the front of the rim. It wasn’t the ideal shot, which Tatum admitted to after the game.
“Could I have made it? Yeah. Could I have gotten a better shot? Yeah,” Tatum said. “Anytime you miss or lose, you always look at things differently, what you could’ve done better.”
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Of course, the game didn’t come down to one play in the 132-126 C’s overtime loss at Chase Center. The Celtics had plenty of chances to win after going up 17 points midway through the third quarter. They just missed plenty of shots as Mazzulla pointed to the 20 missed layups and 41 off-mark 3-pointers.
Tatum himself was also limited after he sprained his ankle in the opening minutes of the game. While he returned at the start of the second, he detailed how the sprained ankle limited his movement for the rest of the game.
“Not to make any excuses but when you sprain your ankle, it kind of swells up,” Tatum said. “Just stiff. It just makes it a little tougher to move. But I still was out there. So I feel like if you go out there and play, you can’t make any excuses.”
The Celtics will now look to regroup after their five-game winning streak was snapped. They’re now 20-6 on the season, but the road has led to some issues. The C’s are 6-6 on the road compared to a sparkling 14-0 at home. They can look to fix some of those issues as they take on the Kings at 10 p.m. Wednesday as part of the back-to-back.
“For most of the game, we played well today,” Tatum said. “They got hot at the right time and we just started missing shots. Last year when we came in here, I don’t think we played well throughout the game and we lost and it wasn’t as close as it was today. Today was a good game. Obviously, when you lose, certain things that you look at you feel like you could do better. But we got some really good looks, we missed some layups, some open 3s that we confident that we’ll knock in next time.”
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