Following a triumphant comeback victory over the San Antonio Spurs Saturday evening the Memphis Grizzlies seemed to be hungry for their first win streak of the season the very next night against the Boston Celtics.
A hard-fought, tightly contested affair throughout, Taylor Jenkins' struggling squad gave the C's a legitimate run for their money and even found themselves taking the lead late in regulation.
With mere minutes to go in the contest, hope was very much alive that the Grizzlies could go on to pull off an upset against the top-seeded Celtics, as they had an opportunity to secure a two-point edge in crunch time that, in theory, could have shifted the energy and momentum in their favor.
Unfortunately, with a failed razzle-dazzle pass attempt from a driving Santi Aldama, Boston coughed up possession, leading to the game-sealing jam by star Kristaps Porzingis on the other end, bleeding toward a final score of 102-100.
Aldama undoubtably had one of the best showings of his NBA career during this Sunday bout, shooting lights out from the floor while, for the most part, taking proper care of the rock, as he commited just one turnover.
Sadly, said blunder came during one of the most pivotal moments on the night and, during his postgame interview, he discussed what had transpired from his perspective.
Santi Aldama addresses costly turnover during Grizzlies loss to Celtics
"That was a bad read. I was driving, I saw somebody come over so I was really trying to find the open man and I know Ziaire [Williams] told me he was cutting. I think I probably should have stopped, and I jumped off of one foot so I put myself in a bad position. And I knew John [Konchar] was open but obviously Jaylen [Brown] was going back to him so I tried to find him but if I were to stop with two feet I probably would have found Ziaire and got him the dunk. [I] just got to be better at reading that. Obviously one turnover but a pretty important one so [I'm] just trying to learn from it"Santi Aldama on costly turnover
SLIM SPAIN SLAM 🇪🇸 @santialdama pic.twitter.com/ELdOllWSrJ
— Bally Sports: Grizzlies (@GrizzOnBally) November 20, 2023
Aside from his poor late-game decision making, as noted Aldama still did find himself putting forth a tremendous showing during his first start of the season, finishing off with a tremendous stat line of 28 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals while shooting 40.0 percent from deep.
In the end, of course, this brand of production was on display in a losing effort but aside from his unfortunate turnover along with his missed last-second game-winning attempt with four-seconds left the 22-year-old was a major reason why the Grizzlies were close to pulling out a win in the first place.