Despite having crucial players miss the action with their respective injuries, the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder put up a barnburner of a fight against each other on Thursday night. Going up against the reigning champion brought out the best in Jaylen Brown and company; Brown, in particular, had an excellent outing, putting up 34 points, six rebounds, and seven assists in a lead role against the league's best defense amid Jayson Tatum and Derrick White's absences.
However, it all ended in heartbreak for the Celtics; they ended up taking a 104-102 loss after they got whistled for a foul on the Thunder's final offensive possession on an offensive rebound from Chet Holmgren.
Boston's defense had already done its job, forcing Alex Caruso to take the game-winning attempt instead of having Shai Gilgeous-Alexander do so, but fortune wasn't on Boston's side, with Sam Hauser being called for a loose ball foul with 0.8 seconds left on the clock and the game tied at 102.
Holmgren ended up making both free throws, and the Celtics could not retaliate after Payton Pritchard's game-winning attempt from deep three-point range fell short. This then prompted Celtics fans on social media to express their disgust with how the clash between two contenders ended.
Celtics fans were irate
Celtics fans did not hide their anger towards the officials whatsoever, heading to X (formerly Twitter) to express their feelings. Some believe that it wasn't even the Celtics' fault that Holmgren fell, with his teammate Lu Dort being the one who purportedly knocked him over.
“Celtics got cheated. You can’t call a foul there,” @A_King_Of_1Self wrote.
“Lu Dort just committed a foul on Chet Holmgren and they blew the whistle on the Celtics to end the game. Classic Thunder,” @aajalas added.
“This is a weak a** way to end this Celtics OKC game. On a scramble foul with .8 on the clock that sends Chet to the line,” @LebronJamesBond furthered.
“The refs just called a foul on the Celtics when Lu Doet fouled his own teammate 😭,” @amwalsh16 pointed out.
