Your Turn: Zeller Steps Up To Lead Celtics To Last-Second Victory
BOSTON (CBS) -- It looked like Wednesday night was going to be another loss where the Boston Celtics let a late lead slip away.
Tyler Zeller was sick of that story line, though.
With just 1.7 seconds left and the Celtics trailing the Utah Jazz 84-83, thanks to a Gordon Hayward jumper over Zeller on the other end, Brad Stevens drew up a play for Jae Crowder. The forward had one of the hot hands for Boston, finishing the night with 18 points off the bench.
But that play went by the wayside when the Jazz defense kept switching their matchups ahead of the inbounds pass. They denied Crowder the ball, so Marcus Smart calmly called a timeout instead of forcing the inbounds.
It was time for a new play, and a new potential hero for the Celtics.
Brad Stevens switched things up, and drew a play for Zeller underneath the basket. Most of the focus was on Isaiah Thomas (who led the game's scoring with 21 points) and Crowder, so Smart made a beautiful lob pass to the Celtics big-man, who caught the ball in the circle under the hoop. He waited until a streaking Hayward was in the air before muscling up a shot with less than a second left, kissing it off the glass for a 85-84 Celtics victory.
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When everything had calmed down and Zeller sat in front of reporters, he told them that was the first game-winning shot of his NBA career.
"It's a great feeling, especially at the other end with Gordon making the shot over me," said Zeller, who finished with eight points and 11 rebounds. "Being able to come back and make a game winner is an unbelievable feeling. This was sort of a must-win for us so being able to get it, it's a big, big win for us."
Zeller said it was a veteran who has only seen 19 minutes of action with the Celtics, Luigi Datome, who gave him a few parting words of encouragement out of the huddle. Datome, who was acquired from the Detroit Pistons along with Jonas Jerebko for Tayshaun Prince at the trade deadline, told Zeller to be patient. He'd have enough time to put up a shot fake after receiving the pass, so make the most of those extra ticks of the clock.
"That's exactly what happened," recalled Zeller. "I caught the ball and saw Gordon flying in, so I shot faked and I got the ball up."
Zeller was mobbed by his teammates on the floor, though he just wanted to make sure the shot would count. He was elated to get the all-good from the officials, and was happy he could step up when it was his turn to do so.
"This team has a great ability every night to have someone different step up. You never know who it's going to be," said Zeller. "We don't have a LeBron who we rely on every night to get 30 points. We have guys who step up some nights and score, and other nights it's their night to make plays. Our guys do a great job playing hard and playing their roles."
"It was a tough pass and you had to have a great finish -- we had both," Thomas told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich Thursday morning. "Smart made a great pass and T.Z. made a great finish. We need every game; I want to make the playoffs so bad. We made a great play at the end."
While they nearly let another one slip away, the Celtics will take the W as they continue their quest for the eighth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Boston had been 2-7 under Stevens following a blowout loss entering Wednesday night, but hope to have rebuilt some momentum with their grind-it-out win over the Jazz.
Stevens said he wanted Tuesday night's loss to sting, and the C's took that feeling to the court Wednesday night.
"It was embarrassing to ourselves, to this organization, and to the game of basketball," Smart said of Tuesday night's blowout. "We understood that. So we just tried to come out here and make sure that, not only to the coaches, but to ourselves, that that's not the team we were and it was just a fluke game."
Now they'll have to show Friday night, when they take on the Pelicans in New Orleans, that Wednesday night was no fluke.
