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Parquet plays: end of quarter two-for-one strategy stinks and here’s why

How often do you hear NBC Sports’ Brian Scalabrine say “Celtics have a two-for-one opportunity here. Look for them to shoot with 34, maybe 35 seconds left on the clock” and how much impending doom do you sense when he says it?

In a game where Jayson Tatum couldn’t miss, the Celtics played the two-for-one game to end the third quarter. The strategy of playing the clock so that the Celtics can guarantee themselves two shot attempts and limit the Nets to one in a 35-40 second window drives me up the wall.

Sure, if Boston takes their first shot with 35 seconds left and the Nets take their next shot a few seconds later, Boston can then run the clock out and have the last laugh going into the fourth.