NOT SO FAST, PHILLY
Early confetti drop adds to drama as C’s take series control
PHILADELPHIA — The confetti delayed the start of overtime. Stray bits of confetti were still falling two minutes into overtime as the 76ers brought the ball up the floor.
Red, white and blue strips of paper had to be cleared from the keyboard so I could type this. (At least the first edition version.)
In a game that featured huge plays and Celtics-76ers tension worthy of these lads’ forefathers, yesterday’s 101-98 Bostonian victory is fated to be known as The Confetti Game.
That the Celts used the win to put a 3-0 stranglehold on the Eastern Conference semifinal series only served to make the premature Sixers celebration all the more embarrassing.
It was rendered so when Al Horford scored with 5.5 seconds left in overtime to give the Celtics a 99-98 lead. Then, after a Philly timeout moved the ball to the frontcourt, Horford tipped Ben Simmons’ inbounds pass away and eventually was fouled. He hit the two free throws with 3 seconds to go, and, with no timeouts left, the Sixers got just a flailing Marco Belinelli trey try at the end.
It was dramatic stuff in its own right, but it couldn’t hold a candle to what transpired at the end of regulation.
The confetti.
It was a tie game in the final moments of the fourth quarter when Simmons tried to set a pick for Joel Embiid, but instead took his teammate out. That meant J.J. Redick’s pass was essentially to no one. Terry Rozier collected it and hit Jaylen Brown for layup and a two-point lead with 1.8 seconds left.
Belinelli then threw in a jumper from the deep right corner, and there were two immediate questions: Did he beat the buzzer? Was it a 2 or a 3?
Somebody didn’t wait for the answers, and the trigger was pulled on the confetti. The crowd rejoiced and Celtics walked around the floor with arms out and palms out.
CELTICS BEAT Steve Bulpett
Like, what the hell?
“I knew it wasn’t no 3,” said Terry Rozier. “I was the one guarding him, and I was on the ground, so I wasn’t worried. But, I mean, it’s a poor job on their end. It gave us some more of a breather, so that was cool.”
It was fairly clear right away that Belinelli’s shot should count, and a quick review confirmed that he was not outside the arc. So the Celtic dreams of a series sweep would have to wait until the arena people could sweep the floor.
The scene brought to mind the Lakers putting balloons in the rafters of The Forum for release in case they beat the Celtics in Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals.
The Lakers never got to let them go. The Celtics won, 108-106, in Bill Russell’s swan song.
But the confetti rained down here yesterday.
“I mean, I’ve seen some goofy stuff in my life, but that was pretty goofy,” said Rozier after producing 18 points and not a single turnover in 44 minutes. “It’s crazy, but we pulled it out. That’s the most important thing. Things happen. Poor job on whoever dropped the confetti, but it gave us more time.”
The 76ers actually scored the first five points of the extra inning, but the Celtics had seen the sky falling and they’d survived that. A 5-0 Philly run? No big whoop.
Actually, at least one member of the Philadelphia team had fallen for the confetti con.
“We had drawn it to be a walkoff 3,” said Sixers coach Brett Brown of the Belinelli shot. “A walkoff 3, and it thought it was. I mean, I actually left the court.”
Then he was informed of the harsh reality.
“Well, initially, because you think you’ve just won the game, let’s just start with that,” Brown said. “And then you come back on and, you know, there’s confetti. You move on. It slows the game down a lot, but you move on.
“The confetti’s coming down, and I’m more thinking about I wish it was a 3-point more than I am the confetti.”
The Celtics weren’t sure what to think. They were just happy they were still alive with five more minutes to keep the 76ers from creeping within 2-1 and make this a real series.
“I mean, it was crazy,” said Marcus Smart. “It was shocking. But I get why. They thought it was a 3-point basket, and it’s hard to see on the floor when you’re sitting over there controlling that stuff, so I get it.
“It was kind of funny though.” And it could have been worse. “If they would have dropped the confetti in Milwaukee,” Rozier said of the Celts’ first-round opponent and place where they lost all three, “(Expletive), we probably would have been just now starting OT, because they got so much confetti in Milwaukee. Way more confetti than here.”
And we should all be happy that the person with the Confetti Codes here isn’t working for the Department of Defense. We’d hate to lose Canada.