Four points up with 4.2 seconds left. That’s where Boston stood against Brooklyn on Tuesday night. The Celtics had done enough to win, or so everyone thought. Then came a missed free throw, a foul nearly the length of the court, two more misses, and a rookie’s corner three. Suddenly, a game that looked finished was heading to overtime.

And that was only the beginning of a wild NBA night. In New York, a halftime warning from a coach was followed by an ugly confrontation. Out West, three flopping calls in the closing minutes left players and coaches questioning the officials. But first, Boston still had a mess to clean up, and one man was about to do something only Larry Bird had done before.

Jayson Tatum hit a 17-foot jumper at the overtime buzzer to give the Celtics a 125-124 win over the Nets. He finished with 40 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and zero turnovers, becoming the first Celtic since Bird in 1990 to combine 40 points, eight assists, no turnovers, and a buzzer-beating winner. For Tatum, returning from a torn Achilles, it meant much more.

“That was a hell of a feeling, just kind of getting back to doing things that I used to do before I was injured. And sharing that moment with my teammates on the court, seeing them rally and be excited for me.”

The six-time All-Star scored six of Boston’s eight overtime points, playing 42 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back. It was his first 40-point game since the injury and his first back-to-back since returning. Yet Boston almost never needed his heroics. Brooklyn’s Mikel Brown Jr. had forced overtime with a corner three, making the Celtics pay for their late mistakes.

“We got the ball to the MVP. And he took us home,” Paul George said.

But even Tatum’s historic night couldn’t keep Jaylen Brown out of the conversation. During the broadcast, Brian Scalabrine brought up Tatum’s zero turnovers while joking about PR, a subject Brown had already made headlines for discussing after his move to Philadelphia.

“Now, if I was doing PR work for Jayson Tatum, I would remind everybody who led the league in turnovers last year. But I’m not doing that.”

Brown had previously described Tatum as someone with a great PR team while denying there was a feud between them. The Celtics broadcast also revisited Brown’s “lamb chops and gravy” language. Whether the jokes were intended as direct shots remains unclear, but Brown’s departure was still finding its way into Boston’s conversations.

Karl-Anthony Towns Turns a Heated Clash Into a Knicks Comeback

Paul Reed was giving the Knicks problems long before things got physical. Starting in place of the injured Jalen Duren, the Pistons big man scored 15 first-half points and grabbed five rebounds. Karl-Anthony Towns struggled to contain him, and New York trailed by as many as 13. At halftime, Mike Brown had seen enough.

“I just told him the truth: ‘KAT, the guy is killing us on the glass, and when he gets a rebound, he’s putting it back. … If he catches it on the perimeter, guard him.’ And he did those things. I gotta tip my hat off to KAT because I thought his shift in his mindset was really big for us in the second half.”

Then, with 8:30 remaining in the third quarter, Reed caught Towns in the back of the head with an elbow while boxing out. Towns confronted him, and the two had to be separated by teammates and officials. Reed received a Flagrant 1 after a review, but neither player was ejected.

The bigger damage came on the scoreboard. Towns finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds as the Knicks pulled away for a 111-97 victory. He scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds after halftime, delivering exactly the response his coach had demanded.

“[Reed] played great in the first half. I think we were able to not let him loose on the offensive boards. He was really impacting the game. For [KAT] to step up as he did throughout the game was something that we needed,” Jalen Brunson said.

The Knicks had their comeback. But elsewhere, another confrontation was brewing, this time between the NBA’s flopping crackdown and the players trying to figure out what officials would call next.

JJ Redick Questions NBA’s Flopping Crackdown After Three Late Calls

Ziaire Williams had already made his position clear before the Lakers faced Portland. The NBA fined him $2,000 for flopping against Utah, and he planned to appeal. Rather than promising to change his approach, Williams offered a response that became especially relevant just two days later.

“If I gotta flop again to get a win, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Against Portland, Williams was called for flopping again. Damian Lillard converted the resulting technical free throw to extend the Trail Blazers’ lead to 125-121 late in the fourth quarter. Williams wasn’t alone. Ja Morant and Toumani Camara also received flopping technicals during the final six minutes of Portland’s 136-129 victory.

Redick questioned whether officials were mistaking the way Williams naturally moves for an attempt to fool them.

“They’re just looking for the theatrical stuff. I also think Ziaire’s body naturally moves a certain way, so I’ll have to go back and look at it. I don’t think it was a flop.”

Under the NBA’s rules, an in-game flopping violation gives the opposing team one technical free throw. A violation identified through postgame review can instead bring a $2,000 fine. The distinction mattered in Portland, where the calls came during a close finish and directly affected the score.

Ja Morant also disagreed with his technical.

“I just showed my hands and took a bump in my chest. It ain’t like I fell. I just kept going backwards. It is what it is. I’ll try to appeal it. I think it’s like a $2,000 [fine].”

Even Portland wasn’t celebrating the officiating. Blazers coach Micah Nori pointed to the unusually high number of calls, saying only 27 flops had been called across roughly 2,000 games the previous season. His sarcasm was hard to miss.

“Good job by the NBA. Point of emphasis. Great job. There were [71] free throws. We almost got past 2 a.m. on the East Coast for the [end of the] game. Sorry to keep you all here so long.”

Damian Lillard also questioned the timing of the calls.

“There’s a lot of plays in an NBA game where you see guys embellish a play. I think it should be significant, like a bad flop, for them to call it when the game is being decided.”

The Lakers still had opportunities afterward, so the calls alone cannot explain the loss. But three flopping technicals in six minutes left both teams talking about the whistles. In San Antonio, meanwhile, the conversation was about a player who seemingly couldn’t miss.

Julian Champagnie Ties a Spurs Record He Already Owned

Julian Champagnie needed only one half to remind everyone why his name was already in the Spurs’ record book. Against Sacramento, the 25-year-old buried eight three-pointers before halftime, including six without a miss in the second quarter. The remarkable part? He had already set that franchise record himself.

Champagnie first made eight threes in a half against the Knicks on December 31, 2025, when he finished with a franchise-record 11 for the game. This time, all 24 of his first-half points came from beyond the arc. San Antonio took an 80-54 halftime lead and eventually won 130-103.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson credited the team’s awareness of where its hottest shooter was on the floor.

“I thought our team did a good job of recognizing where he was once he got going. We’ve had some time in the last few years where I think we’ve done a poor job of (finding open shooters). Not intentionally. I just think we’ve grown in that aspect a little bit. Tonight was an example of that.”

Champagnie finished with 26 points, shooting 8-for-13 from three, while Victor Wembanyama added 29 points and 10 rebounds. The victory was San Antonio’s first at home this season. Champagnie, who signed a three-year, $45 million deal in the offseason, pointed to the team’s growing familiarity with one another.

“We’ve just grown the chemistry, grown the relationships. We all know where we want to be on the court … so, I think it’s kind of a product of that.”

Eight threes, another record-tying performance, and a blowout victory. It was the sort of night players remember for years. But away from the games, former NBA star John Wall shared a memory he has found a way to keep close every single day.

John Wall Still Texts His Late Mother Every Morning and Night

John Wall’s mother, Frances Pulley, died from breast cancer in December 2019. Nearly seven years later, the former Wizards star still sends messages to her phone. He even continues paying the bill so the number stays active, preserving a small part of the routine they once shared.

“I made sure I paid the bill for that for the rest of the time I’m going to be on this earth, so I can send my daily text in the morning and my daily text at night. It helps me. I know she can’t respond, but I can still send my messages and know that nobody else has her number.”

“And sometimes you have your moments when you just sitting at home and you just reflect. And I always look at pictures and reflect. My display screen on my phone is my first game against the Sixers, and we win the game and I give her a hug, and I always keep that as my bio picture.”

Pulley raised Wall and his siblings as a single mother after his father died when he was nine. During his 2017 Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame induction, Wall became emotional while remembering her sacrifices, including times she went without paying the electricity bill so he could continue playing AAU basketball.

Years later, Wall still keeps that connection alive. The messages cannot receive a reply, but the number remains hers, and the texts keep coming. Every morning. Every night.