In the last seconds of their game against the Sixers, the Boston Celtics should have had another shot to tie.After a disheartening road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, the Boston Celtics are now 5-2 on the new 2023-24 NBA season. Although the Sixers dominated the second half, Boston mounted a frantic late charge and had a Kristaps Porzingis jumper up in the air that would have knotted the game, but the effort brushed off the rim and into the hands of Joel Embiid.
The NBA confirms in its L2M report that Embiid stepped out of bounds here. Should have been Celtics ball with 4.5 seconds remaining.https://t.co/WA2trOEAuR
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) November 9, 2023
But there was one problem: Embiid was clearly out of bounds when he caught the ball with a few seconds remaining, and the officials failed to call it, enabling the clock to run out.
According to Taylor Snow of the Celtics, the NBA has confirmed in the official “last two minutes” report that Joel Embiid did have a sneaker on the line when he touched the ball, and so, Boston should have gotten possession back with enough time to fire another attempt for the tie.
Despite their aggravation, the Celtics will have to slog on through the first half of their schedule, looking for answers after two straight losses that came on the heels of a 5-0 start to the season. Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have both looked strong, if not flawless, in their first two games in Boston uniforms, but it was the difficulties of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum that kept the Celtics at bay for the majority of the evening on Wednesday.
On Friday evening, the Boston Celtics will seek to get back in the win column when they host the Brooklyn Nets.
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