Whether it was an admission of defeat or a frustration-fueled attempt at sending a message to the starting lineup, Joe Mazzulla finally went to his bench with 10:24 to go in the fourth quarter of Game 6.
What happened next may as well have shot a flare into the sky from the sinking ship that was the Boston Celtics' offense: The bench unit needs more minutes.
Payton Pritchard, Baylor Scheierman, Ron Harper Jr., Jordan Walsh, and Luka Garza went on an 11-0 run and eventually won the fourth quarter 30-24.
The stagnant, standstill offense that plagued Boston through the first three quarters was rapidly replaced by quick decisions, off-ball movement, and the same screening that carried them to 56 regular-season wins.
More than anything, the pace stood out. Not even necessarily from the perspective of all-out sprinting, but more so the quickness with which the end-of-the-game group made decisions.
As soon as Scheierman gets the ball at half-court, he swings it up to Pritchard, who pump-fakes and drives. Once he draws help, he finds Scheierman, who does the same, pump-faking Kelly Oubre Jr. out of his shoes.
From there, a stutter dribble leads to a corner pass to Walsh, who keeps the ball moving, finding Pritchard for an open 3-point attempt.
The shot doesn't even fall, but Garza is right there for the put-back.
But rewind a few seconds. Watch Joel Embiid during Scheierman's drive. Scheierman gets downhill, which brings Embiid off his spot -- allowing Garza to take some extra space under the rim. That directly led to his ability to get the offensive rebound.
Mazzulla mentioned it last night. The Philadelphia 76ers probably took their feet off the gas a little bit once the Boston bench mob checked in. But still, the constant movement leading to success shouldn't be viewed as a coincidence when it's the exact style of basketball that worked for the Celtics all season.
Plays like this one speak volumes, too. It's the small things.
Watch Harper on this play.
Pritchard gets the ball past half-court at the 20-second mark, pushing when he gets the chance (something he noted the importance of post-game on Thursday night). But right alongside him is Harper.
Rather than jogging down the court, matching the pace of the defense, Harper sprints to the corner. He beats his man -- VJ Edgecombe -- to the spot and gets an open three because of it.
Boston's offense hit a wall, and instead of bouncing back, it backed up and kept driving into that same wall, hoping something would give.
When Mazzulla put the bench unit on the court, they decided to drive around the wall.
It was less about the actual ball movement and more about the player movement. Quick pump-fakes. Intentional drives. Kick-outs with purpose. Fast decisions.
Just look at the first play of the third quarter.
The Sixers switch off the ball when Sam Hauser screens for Brown, so Hauser sprints to the wing. He gets himself wide-open for three. But Neemias Queta misses him.
Queta holds the ball and passes it to Hauser too late. By that point, the Celtics' advantage is gone. Queta drives aimlessly, dumps it off to Tatum, and doesn't move a muscle.
So, when Tatum tries to dump it back to him, he's not ready, and the play ends in a turnover.
Then, there were plays like this one.
Brown pushes the ball, but rather than the Celtics going into a set or an action, he just challenges Oubre one-on-one.
He misses a shot that looked more like a foul bait than an actual attempt, and even though Nikola Vucevic nearly gets a tip-out rebound, the Sixers corral the ball.
It's not what most want to hear, but Mazzulla's usual point also stands: The Celtics missed a lot of wide-open shots in their 12-point third quarter on Thursday night.
To avoid flooding this article with 20 clips in a row, here's a link where you can watch them all.
That said, here are a couple of perfect examples.
First, a couple of timely screens -- primarily one by