Game 1 of the NBA playoffs Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics Sunday wound up being one to remember. The hometown Celtics led this one 96-85 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Nets stormed back and were up 107-102 with just 5:30 left. Boston battled back to tie after that, but Brooklyn then took a 114-111 lead with 45.9 seconds left off a three-pointer from Kyrie Irving. A Jaylen Brown layup put the Celtics within one, though, and a Kevin Durant miss then led to an Al Horford defensive rebound, which led to this game-winning spinning catch and layup from Jayson Tatum in close against Irving:
JAYSON TATUM BUZZER BEATER FOR THE WIN 😱 pic.twitter.com/Y8Rf2CDTeN
— ESPN (@espn) April 17, 2022
And that led to a lot of reactions from the NBA world:
That was the first game-winning buzzer beater in the playoffs at home in Celtics history.
This was the 358th home game in Celtics playoff history.
For a storied franchise that’s seen almost everything you can imagine, that was a first.
— Micah Adams (@MAdamsStatGuy) April 17, 2022
Jayson Tatum's buzzer-beater was the first of his career and the first playoff buzzer-beater for the Celtics since Paul Pierce in 2010 vs the Heat. pic.twitter.com/hglPAUvxL6
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 17, 2022
And there’s the difference in the Celtics team. Last year Marcus Smart would’ve taken that shot. Ime got him to buy in and be the Marcus smart everyone loved out of Ok State. BEAUTIFUL! Looking like a true PG again! That’s what made Him special!
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) April 17, 2022
Smart not taking that shot was the epitome of why the Celtics love and trust him.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 17, 2022
Celtics earned that W!!! That game felt like the damn NBA Finals. Carry the hell on…
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) April 17, 2022
Perkins certainly has a point in that this game felt like higher stakes than Game 1 of a quarterfinals series. And it saw some incredible individual performances as well, with Irving posting 39 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals, Tatum recording 31 points and eight assists, Brown adding 23 points and five rebounds, and Horford and Smart also both hitting the 20-point mark for the Celtics. Game two will be Wednesday night in Boston, beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT; if it’s anything like this one, it should be worth watching.
[@ESPN on Twitter; photo from David Butler II/USA Today Sports]
