On June 25, 2025, the Boston Celtics drafted Hugo Gonzalez 28th overall. The next day, they selected Amari Williams with the 46th overall pick. Nearly seven months later, to the day, both rookies played a key role in Boston’s 28th win of the season.
Sometimes in the NBA, you have to win ugly. Friday’s double-overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets was the definition of ugly. Boston sleepwalked through the first half, brought the energy for the next 22 minutes, then relinquished a 10-point lead in the final 120 seconds of regulation, allowing Brooklyn to force overtime.
“We don’t always play perfect, but you can guarantee that we play hard, and that gives you a chance every night,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters after the win at Barclays Center, via CLNS Media.
Hugo Gonzalez helped the Celtics win in a different way
Of any player on the Celtics, Gonzalez embodies this mindset perhaps the most. The 19-year-old captured the attention of the Cs community early this season, when it became apparent that good things happen when he’s on the court.
Typically, that means rebounding, hustle plays, and defense.
Friday?
He literally saved the game.
With 2.5 seconds remaining in overtime, Mazzulla subbed in Gonzalez for Williams before Boston inbounded the ball down three. Brooklyn came out of the Celtics’ final timeout in a zone, which somehow left Hugo wide-open in the near corner for the game-tying three.
Joe Mazzulla is a master manipulator of basketball man. He sees the Nets go zone so he makes a last second sub to put Hugo Gonzalez in the game. Hugo ends up knocking down a HUGE three to tie it up. Wow. pic.twitter.com/fkq27cdVIJ
— NikNBAð (@NIKNBAYT) January 24, 2026
"I mean you've got nerves, but, as soon as you step on that court you know you just have to try and make a play," Gonzalez told the media in the locker room, via CLNS Media. "It's also easy when you have a coach that's trusting in you, teammates that are trusting in you, knowing that if you take a shot, you're going to make it. That helps a lot."
This all went down about an hour and a half after the rookie guard was emphatically subbed off for messing up a defensive coverage. A lot can change over the course of a game.
Mazzulla later joked that “a lot would have to happen” for Gonzalez to find himself in a similar position in a playoff scenario. Truthfully, a lot had to happen for him to get that chance on Friday.
Ironically, the clutch shot was literally the last thing Gonzalez did in this game. He didn’t play a second of the final overtime, but finished with an impressive 10 points and seven rebounds on a perfect 4-4 night from the field.
Amari Williams accidentally became important at work and stepped up big
Seconds earlier, Williams, who had just checked into the game for the first time, caught a three-quarter-court-length pass from Hauser, immediately found a sprinting Payton Pritchard, who sank a three to cut the Nets’ lead to just two. The Hugo shot doesn’t happen without this play. The whole sequence took just four seconds, which gave the Celtics plenty of time for their final possession.
Celtics using Amari Williams skillset in the clutch. Needed a tall guy to go up and catch the long pass and be able to pass that to PP good job pic.twitter.com/0yvLEzXkxu
— NikNBAð (@NIKNBAYT) January 24, 2026
“Mainly, it says two things,” Mazzulla praised. “One, for Amari to be able to sit through the entire game and be ready to execute some of the plays we’ve gone over in practice. So, credit to him and the coaching staff -- the guys that work with him and get him ready to go. I’d say the same thing for Hugo’s mindset. Those guys made plays, and the [player development] staff gets them ready to go every day.”
It didn’t stop in the first overtime, either. Williams played the entirety of the second with both Neemias Queta and Luka Garza fouled out. About a minute and a half in, he relocated across the paint on a Pritchard drive to give the Celtics guard an outlet once he picked up his dribble, caught his pass, and finished through contact for an and-one.
Amari Williams getting thrown into the deep end in double OT pic.twitter.com/ruYmQRQMvO
— Sam LaFrance (@SamLaFranceNBA) January 24, 2026
Minutes later, he sealed the game with a loud block on Nolan Traore with about 40 seconds remaining. His teammates were pumped; take a look.
Look how happy everyone was for Amari Williams after his massive block https://t.co/KhWWdhSdZu pic.twitter.com/Ah7O5Zh4mT
— Noa Dalzell ð (@NoaDalzell) January 24, 2026
After the win, Williams revealed that he flew in just two hours before tipoff from Maine, with the possibility that Queta would miss the matchup due to illness.
“Just kind of being ready for whenever,” he explained, via CLNS Media. “You don’t really know until you get here if you’re going to suit up or not.”
It’s one game against one of the weaker teams in the NBA, but it sure feels like the Celtics have found something with both of these players. Gonzalez has proven on multiple occasions already that he’s a rotation player on a winning team, while Williams showed tremendous poise by remaining ready on Friday.
It sure feels like the Celtics won the 2025 draft, and Brad Stevens may have done it again.