Video: Step-by-step breakdown of Hugo Gonzalez's clutch shot against the Brooklyn Nets

STEP 1: MAKING SURE THEY HAD THE TIMEOUT
STEP 2: THE ADJUSTMENT
STEP 3: THE SET-UP
STEP 4: THE EXECUTION

The Celtics shouldn’t have needed double overtime to beat the Brooklyn Nets Friday night. They had a 10-point lead with three minutes to go and then let the Nets go on a 13-3 run because they simply couldn't grab a rebound.

That part stunk, but an optimistic way to look at it would be to say if they didn’t go into overtime, we wouldn’t have seen Hugo Gonzalez finish one of the wildest game-tying shots you’ll see. Here’s a step-by-step look at how the Celtics pulled that play off.

STEP 1: MAKING SURE THEY HAD THE TIMEOUT

We have to rewind before we get to the Hugo Gonzalez shot to get to the thing that made it happen.

Boston called timeout after Noah Clowney’s three-pointer to give Brooklyn the lead with 42 seconds left in overtime, giving them one left. Most coaches would have taken that timeout after Ziaire Williams’ second free throw put Brooklyn up five with eight seconds left. They would have drawn up a quick three-pointer and then, if it went in, they would have fouled and communicated the next play.

Mazzulla didn’t do that. He loves attacking chaos, and the Celtics were able to get the touchdown pass to Amari Williams, who flipped it to Payton Pritchard for three.

This actually might be the play of the game because it came without using a timeout. If they don't make this play, they don't have the timeout to use that sets the next play and gives Joe the chance to sub Hugo in. pic.twitter.com/t2Mi2SMtnx
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@John_Karalis) January 24, 2026

That allowed Mazzulla to keep his timeout and call it after Nolan Traore missed his second free throw. Now he had a chance to draw something up, and most importantly, adjust once he saw what the Nets were doing.

STEP 2: THE ADJUSTMENT

Mazzulla saw the set up and knew he needed one more shooter on the floor. He pulled Williams at the very last second and sent Gonzalez in.

“We had Amari out there just in case they matched up in a certain coverage,” Mazzulla explained. It looked like they were going with something different, and so we wanted to get Hugo out there, and Hugo made a great play.”

Williams’ strength is passing, and with how Boston was set up, it looked like they might have been looking for him to be the hub to find a shooter. An inbound to Williams with 2.5 on the clock allowed for one pass, so he could have been there to make that play.

But the Nets were in a zone to prevent a three, which Mazzulla quickly sniffed out because the Nets went without one of their centers, and so he sent in Gonzalez.

STEP 3: THE SET-UP

The first thing about the set-up is having a shooter as the inbounder. Every coach in the world will tell you the most dangerous person in these late-game situations is the person inbounding the ball. So Baylor Scheierman, who is also a very good passer, is set up out of bounds.

The second thing is Boston had everyone above the logo, which is a brilliant in its own right.

Boston Celtics vs. Brooklyn Nets — Broadcast screen shot

“During the timeout, we had decided to zone up the three-point line,” Michael Porter, Jr. said. “But then they came out and their play wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. We thought they were all going to start inside the 3-point line, but they all started high, so I think at the last minute, some of us were confused if we were now manning up or zoning up still. So we just got confused.”

A team can’t go zone around the three point line with two players at the logo and the best three-point shooter on the team starting past half court. That's why Ziaire Williams was at half court.

Celtics vs. Nets — Broadcast screen shot

That left a lot of space in the middle of the floor for Boston to operate. The Nets were hyper-focused on a play that looked designed for Hauser to get the last shot.

What Mazzulla did was create tunnel vision in the Nets. Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard looked to be screeners for Hauser, but they're Jaylen freakin’ Brown and Payton freakin’ Pritchard, so they must be thinking this has to be some deception for them. AND Scheierman is inbounding?

STEP 4: THE EXECUTION

Here’s how the whole play unfolded.

Two things happened because the Nets thought they were in zone: Brown was allowed to get to the free throw line area, and they lost Hugo Gonzalez. It was Brown running right at Clowney that froze the defense. Look at how much attention he got.

“We were trying to zone up the three-point line and all have a zone, but I think it was obviously poorly executed,” Porter, Jr. said. “I tried to pass the guy through to Noah on that side. We just weren’t all on the same page. And coach Jordi [Fernandez] was trying to communicate on the sideline, it was such crunch time we didn’t know if we were still zoning up … we were just discombobulated.”

Also, watch Scheierman really sell the inbounds pass to Brown. He knows Gonzalez had broken free and was going to be where the pass went, but his pump fake froze Clowney like a QB freezing a linebacker so he could find his target.

From there, it was up to Gonzalez.

The important thing to note here is that this wasn’t necessarily a play called for Gonzalez to get the shot. It’s just that with all the attention paid to everyone else, he was the guy who broke free.

“These threes are a crap shoot,” Mazzulla explained. “You never know what defense they're in … are they on the body or off the body? And so it was really just a read where those four guys had to make a play, and they made a great play and made a great pass.”

In the end, it was 19-year-old Hugo Gonzalez who had the stones to take the shot with confidence and make it, giving Boston enough life to go into a second overtime and win.

“You got nerves, but as soon as you step on the court, you gotta try to make a play,” Gonzalez said. “It’s also easy when you got a coach that is trusting you, teammates are trusting you, that if you take a shot, you’ll make it. That helps a lot.”