“Painful to Watch”: Lou Williams Discusses Celtics-Cavaliers’ Final 34 Seconds Taking 17 Minutes

On Sunday night, the Cavaliers outlasted the Celtics at home and beat them 115-111 to improve to 18-3 to remain atop the Eastern Conference standings. It was a massive win for the Cavs who would have dropped to second had Boston left the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse with a win. As terrific as the duel was, fans, analysts, and former players, including Lou Williams, were extremely irked about how the game ended.

After Evan Mobley’s dunk gave the Cavaliers a four-point lead with 34 seconds left on the clock, the two sides indulged in a frustrating exchange of fouls. It took 17 minutes of actual time to play out those 34 seconds, which left a bad taste for Lou Williams. He voiced his frustration on FanDuel’s Run It Back, saying,

“This was painful. It was painful to watch. 17 minutes to determine a game that had 34 seconds left in it. I know the fans were angsty watching this game.”

His co-star and former Rockets forward Chandler Parsons was as annoyed as Williams but claimed there’s nothing the NBA can do to fix the issue. He said,

“The problem is, there’s so many teams burnt when they are down three and they don’t foul and they allow someone to chuck up a three… That happened a couple of times [and now], everytime someone has a three-point lead, you are fouling, making them make free throws till there’s six seconds or less left.”

The last :34 seconds of the Cavs & Celtics game lasted 17 minutes in real time

Does the NBA have a problem on there hands?@ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 | @MichelleDBeadle pic.twitter.com/CjLQlbtdEu

— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) December 3, 2024

As Chandler explained, the Cavaliers, who led by four, forced the Celtics players to make free throws rather than attempt a three-pointer or get an easy layup. Boston returned the favor and between them, they shot 18 free throws before time finally ran out.

The back-and-forth fouling is a pretty common occurrence in the NBA. The final minutes of close games often get dragged out, as the team trailing keeps fouling and hopes for a miss at the free-throw line. The team in the lead counters by fouling to ensure their opponents don’t get an opportunity to cut the lead with a three-pointer.

It’s a persistent problem that makes the endings of a tight contest tiresome. However, as Chandler explained, there’s no viable fix to the problem.