Milwaukee – Every member of the Boston Celtics inside the Fiserve Forum on Saturday afternoon was in disbelief.

With the clock ticking and the Celtics regressed by three, Jaylyn Brown Boston handed the ball to Marcus Smart on the ocean. Immediately, Smart attempted to shoot a Milwaukee Bucks guard, junior holidaywithout giving it any space. The whistle instantly exploded as Holiday’s arm collided with Smart.

However, to the delight of most of the 17,736 attendees and the dismay of everyone in the Celtics’ travel group, the foul was called in court, rather than a three-shot foul. Smart made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second to give Boston another chance, but none of the three attempts were made, giving Milwaukee a 103-101 win and a 2-1 lead in a series of seven.

Boston coach Aimee Odoka emphatically said he felt he missed the call.

“It was a mistake. It was a mistake. He took the ball and it turned into a shot,” Odoka said. “Both feet are working. You can’t tell it’s a pass. It’s going to shoot. That’s a bad call. No call.”

When asked what explanation they gave him, Odoka said he was told that Smart was wiping his arms.

I saw it in person, but I also saw it on the tape I just watched,” said Odoka. “It’s an opportunity. He’s on his way to a shot. He was obstructed on the way. Bad missed call.”

When asked about the post-game call, Smart asked every reporter in the room what they thought. After not getting a real answer, Smart said, “I mean, that’s all I have to say.”

Smart said that in that time and situation, it just didn’t make sense for him to try to move knowing that the Celtics needed to play in a tie.

“You need three [puntos] “With 4.6 seconds, they know we need three,” Smart said. And we know they will make mistakes. It’s not like he grabbed me when I was low. I was already in my own shooting motion. They said I don’t think it would be 3 free throws.”

Instead, Smart made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second in an effort to give the Celtics a chance. Clever, Robert Williams III s Alhorford They tried, but none failed. Horford’s second attempt, who ran through the basket and sent some of the Celtics bunkering to celebrate, was a tenth of a second past the clock.

“Smart is perfectly timed,” Horford said. “I was able to get the bounce back. At that point, it was just hanging around the edge. We felt like we had a good look in there. I think I flipped it once, I lost it, and the second time I knew it was a little small, so I didn’t Very optimistic. It was late. But we gave ourselves the opportunity to equalize and send it into overtime.”

Smart said he made the call for the missed free-throw attempt on his own and told his teammates he was coming, but noted that there might have been another missed call as his teammates were trying to shoot late.

“It was perfect,” Smart said. “No one was ready. It was our guys. I got it. [Bobby Portis, delantero de los Milwaukee Bucks] He grabbed my shoulder and stripped me. But I saw it well. I got it in the hoop. As Al said, we had a few chances, but it didn’t work out for us.”

Boston slipped by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter before leading 100-99 on a pair of Jaylen Brown’s free throws with 1:49 left. Milwaukee couldn’t respond at the next possession, and Boston had two chances to lead by four, but Smart and Brown each missed three shots.

in the next time, Giannis Antikonmo He hit the throw ball to give Dollars the lead. After another pit stop, Holiday hit a bucket in the fairway to push the lead to 103-100 with 11.2 remaining. Udoka created a play outside the lead time that could have had two quick stages, but the Bucks thwarted her.

“Smart threw it into the corner,” Brown said. “Jrue Holiday was on my mind. He did a good job of pressing me. He was trying to get to my place and take it from me, so I gave it back to Smart.”

That’s when Brown thought about the call late in the game.

“You have to understand the timing and the recording,” he added. “We are in third place. We are looking forward to going up by one. I thought that was very clear. All year long they have been chanting that on the floor, which we understand. But the timing and the scoring, I think they missed one.”

Holiday said he believed Smart was still on the sidelines when the call occurred. “This is not a shooting spree,” Holiday said. “I wasn’t looking over the edge.”

milwaukee coach, Mike Budenholzersaid the plan wasn’t for the Bucks three’s fault in this situation, but they were lucky because the call was just two free throws instead of three.

There were several times when Udoka thought about using his challenge before deciding to accept it on a corresponding blocking/adversary call Grant Williams