The Boston Celtics also won their third game of the series against the Philadelphia 76ers after extra time. After the game, the players agreed on who to thank for the victory: your coach Brad Stevens.
Stevens had announced moves in two critical situations in a time-out, each resulting in relatively open layups: First, Jaylen Brown’s equaliser was “painted on” 24 seconds before the end of regular playing time, and in overtime Al Stevens then put Horford in a position 5.5 seconds before the end in which he could hit the decisive layup.
“Brad’s a genius. It’s incredible,” Horford told ESPN in an interview on the court immediately afterwards. “He paints things up, some of which I look at him confused. But Marcus[Morris] got the pass right to the man, I hit him, and so we won.”
Brown also praised his coach in the highest notes: “We received two decisive and compensating throws from him – layups. That says it all,” says Brown. “We fought and it wasn’t an easy atmosphere, but when it came to everything, we got layups from him in his time-out. I take my hat off to Brad Stevens.”
Stevens, 41, has been considered one of the best coaches in the NBA for years, especially with regard to creativity in so-called ATOs (After-Timeout Plays). Morris said Stevens was “a guru”: “He has the best out-of-bounds plays I have ever seen. He knew exactly what was going to happen in the situation with Horford.”
The Celtics didn’t really go into the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but now they are leading 3-0. 4 of the series will take place again in Philadelphia on the night of Tuesday.