Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.
That's the situation Boston Celtics rookie Hugo Gonzalez found himself in on Friday night.
Gonzalez was on the Celtics' bench with 2.5 seconds left in overtime. Boston had an inbound play coming, and head coach Joe Mazzulla apparently had a last-second idea.
Mazzulla quickly sent Gonzalez to the scorer's table, just before the ball was handed off to be inbounded.
The substitution came just in time, and it took only a moment for it to look brilliant.
The Brooklyn Nets lost Gonzalez cutting around the baseline to the near corner. Baylor Scheierman made the simple pass. Gonzalez hit nothing but net.
The Celtics won the game in double overtime.
An absolutely absurd sequence here to close OT. The Celtics are about to inbound the ball and Joe Mazzulla sees something that makes him call for Hugo Gonzalez to check in at the very last moment. Hugo checks in, and promptly drills the three to send it to 2OT. Pic.twitter.com/cEhLaq9AI4
— Marc D'Amico (@Marc_DAmico) January 24, 2026
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Clearly, the decision worked out for Mazzulla and the Celtics. He may have spotted the Nets in zone and thought this was the right adjustment.
It seemed like the Nets might've gotten messed up by the move, too, because their defense seemingly didn't account for Gonzalez at all.
Of course, there are players you'd expect Boston to throw the ball into before Gonzalez, but it's still not ideal that Brooklyn left him that open.
From the Celtics' perspective? It was genius.
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