What a finish in Boston. The Celtics trailed by eight with 1:39 left in the game and brought their fans to their feet on the team's next two possessions.
Right out of a timeout, the C's got a driving bucket from Isaiah Thomas to make it a six-point game. Then, after forcing a miss out of the Spurs at the other end, Thomas canned a trey from the right corner off of an assist from Avery Bradley.
Only 39 seconds had ticked off the clock, and Boston had whittled San Antonio's lead down from eight to three. It was a one-possession game with a minute left, and the Garden was rocking.
A defensive breakdown, however, would cost the C's in the end.
Isaiah Thomas was defending Patty Mills and followed San Antonio's point guard as he cut down the left side of the lane. Thomas anticipated Mills continuing his path and curling back out to the right wing, but instead, Mills planted his foot under the basket and cut out to the left corner.
Thomas was caught off guard and tried to recover, but he was unable to get around Manu Ginobili who set an accidental yet very useful screen on Thomas. Thomas was turned around, and Marcus Smart, who was guarding Ginobili, was unable to switch off to Mills in time to defend him.
LaMarcus Aldridge had possession of the ball near the left elbow and dished a pass off to a wide-open Mills in the left corner. Mills caught, fired, and canned an uncontested 3 with 44.1 seconds left to double San Antonio's lead back up to six points.
The C's still had a chance down the stretch. In fact, they made it a four-point game with 39.9 seconds left and then forced a miss out of the Spurs, giving them a chance to make it a one-possession game during the final 20 seconds. However, Aldridge grabbed the offensive rebound off of that San Antonio miss and was fouled, leading to two free throws that essentially capped the win for the road team.
Aldridge's rebound was big, but there was no play in the game bigger than Mills' 3-pointer from the corner. It was wide-open, and Mills did exactly what NBA players are supposed to do when they're presented with such a quality look: he canned it.
David Lee didn't make much of an impact last season when he suited up for 30 games with the Celtics. In his return to the Garden with San Antonio, however, he might have been the most impactful player in the game.
Lee finished Friday's post-Thanksgiving contest with his first double-double since March 18 of last season. He came off of San Antonio's bench to log 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting and also hauled in a game-high 12 boards.
Lee was a key cog in San Antonio's dominant bench play. The Spurs reserves outscored Boston's reserves by a count of 56-30. Lee was a big part of that, and that stat may be the reason why San Antonio is now 9-0 on the road this season.
Brad Stevens on the Spurs.
