Dejounte Murray had a very late-career Kobe kind of night — he seemed to shoot it every time he touched it, but when it mattered he knocked down the biggest shot of the night.
Murray finished with 44 points on 18-of-44 shooting, 11 came in overtime but none mattered as much as the final two. To set the scene, Jaylen Brown had just hit a tough mid-range jumper to put Boston up one, 122-121.
That left just 6.2 seconds on the clock, and that was enough time for Murray to hit a well-contested 22-footer over Jrue Holiday for the win.
After the game, Murray said he didn’t want to take that many shots, but Kobe would have been proud.
De’Andre Hunter added 21 points for Atlanta, while Clint Capela had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points while Derrick White scored 22 and hit 5-of-6 from 3, plus played great defense.
The outcome doesn’t change anything in the East standings. The Celtics are still locked in as the No. 1 seed and will finish there. Atlanta is still the No. 10 seed but now is within one game of Chicago in ninth, although the Bulls already have the tiebreak sewn up so it’s really a two-game deficit from the Hawks.
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