Not only are the Boston Celtics at odds with the Milwaukee Bucks, they also have beef with NBA officials.
Celtics guard Marcus Smart insists he was shooting a 3-pointer when Bucks guard Jrue Holiday fouled him with just 4.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter Saturday in Game 3 of their second-round NBA playoff series. Referees concluded Holiday’s foul on Smart took place on the floor and thus awarded him two free throws, in stead of three, with the Celtics trailing 103-100. Watch the incident in this video Clutch Points shared via Twitter.
Smart hit the first free throw and purposefully missed the second, setting up a wild ending, in which the Celtics narrowly failed to score the tying basket at the buzzer. Milwaukee took a 2-1 lead in the series with the victory.
Referees told Celtics head coach Ime Udoka Smart was making a sweeping motion with the ball, according to The Atheltic’s Jay King.
At a postgame press conference, Celtics head coach Ime Udoka accused referees of making a “poor no-call.”
“It was a foul,” Udoka said. “It was a foul. He caught the ball, he was turning into his shot, both feet set. You can’t say that’s a (foot) sweep. … Poor call. Poor no-call. … You could see it in person and on the film I just went and looked at. It’s a shot. He’s curling into his shot. He’s getting fouled on the way up. Bad missed call.”
Smart echoed Udoka’s gripe at a press conference.
“What’d you guys see,” Smart said at a press conference when a reporter asked him for his view of the play. “I would like somebody to answer that. That’s all I got to say.
“We need three with 4.6 seconds. They know we need three. We know they’re going to foul. It’s not like he got me when it was down low. I already was in my shooting motion. I thought it was three free throws. They said it wasn’t. Deal with it.”
The Bucks, naturally, have an opposing view of the play. Head coach Mike Budenholzer accused Smart of copying one of Kevin Durant’s moves.
“No,” Budenholzer said when asked whether Smart was shooting when Holiday fouled him, per The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. “Marcus Smart tried to do the Durant sweep-through thing. You know, fortunate that it was two free throws, but we were not trying to foul.”
The Celtics and Bucks didn’t need any more fodder to ramp up the heat in this series, but referees added it to the mix anyway.
Game 4, which will take place Monday night at Fiserv Forum, should be fun.
