If you saw the game between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers, you know they are the best two teams in the league. They have a solid starting line-up and bench players to take over the league in style. Yet, as the game reached its anti-climax, the Celtics fell to the Cavaliers’ basketball IQ, one could say. Yes, there was a smart piece of play that ended the comeback from Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics.

In all fairness, two errors could have caused the game to go in favor of the Cavs – the foul approach of the Cavs and another interesting error by a player. Well, the first one became a sensational bit of play by the Cavaliers. To beat the best, sometimes you need to think like a fox. The Cavaliers fouled the Celtics three times in the last 11 seconds. They didn’t want the NBA champions to hound them down. Safe to say, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson played his cards to perfection.

When Pritchard missed the free throw intentionally to get out a shot, he made a lane violation by entering into the free-throw line to retrieve the ball. Jayson Tatum said, “Man, that s— happened so fast. They called it. It was just unfortunate I guess.” But before this, the Cavaliers’ smart play got Pritchard to the free-throw line.

At the in-bounds, the Celtics tried to run the play through Payton Pritchard. On the other hand, the Cavaliers put up a zone defense to stop the Celtics from finding space in the court. Usually, teams mark their players man-to-man to stop the offense. More often, you can place a good screen, and the teammate gets to his free spot. He might be open and you score to win. Simple!

In zone defense, players fill pockets of space and it gets confusing for the offensive team to get freed up. On top of that, the Cavaliers fouls team most of the time under 10 seconds. “I think 10 seconds is kind of our thing, But I was like screw that, we’re fouling. I don’t want to see Payton Pritchard come down and shoot a step-back 3. You just feel it,” mentioned Atkinson.

It’s exactly what they did with Pritchard, shooting a career-best 43.2% from the three-point line, as Jrue Holiday gave the ball. Evan Mobley was free to foul him and deny him any opportunity to get back to the game. Well, it became worse when Pritchard made a lane violation and Jayson Tatum looked frustrated with the call. On top of that, a hilarious incident possibly confused the Celtics players.

Another hilarious mix-up brings down Jayson Tatum and Co

Well, we all know the Celtics take things lightly. This player’s mishap could make you fall to your knees out of laughing. Drew Peterson arrived in Boston by signing a two-way contract. While not a starter, he has appeared sparsely this season by getting 7-8 minutes. Yet, when the coaching staff calls him up, he mistakes it for another player on the team.

“Every time I hear ‘Drew,’ I assume it’s Holiday,” Peterson said. “They were pointing at me.” If you think about it, Jrue and Drew do sound the same.

Now, what are the odds of that? Although it’s not a significant problem like the ones we mentioned earlier, the coaching staff probably would get heated in the game’s dying moments. They want the players they call to get up and be ready, and a small confusion like this could baffle you when you don’t need them.

Well, Peterson could probably get back to concentrating on the call from the coaches in the next game!

To sum up, the Celtics vs Cavaliers matchup looks set to make headlines whenever they meet. They will meet two more times in February and they are quickly becoming the teams to beat in the East. Let’s keep the momentum going!