Reserve Unit Leads C’s to Crunch-Time Win Over Kings

BOSTON – One of the benefits of locking up the NBA’s No. 1 overall seed so early is that it allows the Boston Celtics to experiment throughout their remaining regular-season games.

For example, on Friday night, they chose to take out their starters in the fourth quarter and roll with their reserves in crunch time against Sacramento. The Kings still have plenty to fight for in terms of postseason positioning, so they, of course, left their starters in. They made an admirable comeback attempt, but Boston’s bench unit ultimately prevailed on Xavier Tillman’s game-winning floater with 7.4 seconds remaining to secure a 101-100 victory at TD Garden.

Tillman, Oshae Brissett, Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk, Payton Pritchard, and Jordan Walsh each played six-plus minutes off the bench in the final frame, earning valuable crunch-time experience. Even after the Kings stormed back to take the lead, Mazzulla stuck with those guys because he trusts them in any situation and because he holds them to just as high of a standard as he holds his starters.

“Couldn’t simulate a better environment of stress, pressure, chaos,” Mazzulla said. “It’s a perfect environment to execute. That’s why when those guys are in, you hold them to the same standard you hold everybody else to. I thought they did a great job just making plays.”

No play was bigger than the one that took place on Boston’s final offensive possession right after the Kings had taken the lead on a De’Aaron Fox 3-pointer with 27 seconds remaining. Sam Hauser initially drove in for the game-winning attempt but had his shot blocked by Keegan Murray. Hauser redeemed himself, however, by poking the rebound out of Murray’s grasp to Tillman, who then drove from the top of the arc into the paint and dropped in the first game-winning bucket of his NBA career.

“It was pretty cool,” Tillman said, “especially for us to really battle with them coming back and have the mental fortitude to not kind of get into it and to stay solid mentally and everybody kept their composure.”

Tillman credited Pritchard for leading the group through the chaos. The backup point guard played the entire fourth quarter and finished the game with a team-high 21 points, marking the third time this season that he’d led the squad in scoring.

“He was holding us down and talking to us, keeping us cool, calm and relaxed,” Tillman described.

Pritchard had experience playing through such pressure, having played in some crunch-time battles earlier in the season. But for the majority of the other guys, this was their first true stress test with the C’s. Despite that, Mazzulla believed they were prepared for the moment and felt that they deserved a chance to shine in a high-pressure situation. And they sure delivered.

“All those guys have played a significant role in winning games the entire season,” Mazzulla said. “When guys have been injured, they stepped up. Everybody on that floor has started a game for us this year or played significant, significant minutes. So it’s just a testament to them, and whoever is on the floor; I always feel like we have a chance to win.”