Leaving the officiating out, Coach Thibodeau definitely deserves to shoulder a major portion of blame for this loss. In post game interviews when asked the similar question whether a lack of substitutions led to a fatigued team at the end, both Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers needed to pause, look down away from the press and think of what to say before saying it.
Pierce said, "Yeah.......maybe."
Doc said something about if he didn't get tossed he wouldn't have left the team in that situation where the coaches would just go with the players on the floor. Or something like that.
They both tried like heck not to criticize Tom Thibodeau.
But, come on you can't on one night play Rondo 44 minutes, Ray 42, Perk and Pierce 34 and a trying-to-get-his-wind-back Baby 18 minutes and then the very next night play Rondo 45, Ray 43, Perkins and Pierce 42 and Baby 28 minutes and every one of the last 19 minutes and 13 seconds of the second half and expect them to be fresh enough at the end to hold a lead. The idea is ludicrous.
The refs definitely interjected themselves in this game, which refs should never do, and effected the game. The turnovers definitely are becoming a huge problem for this team. But as much as those factors were definitely factors in the outcome of last nights game, so was the truly horrible coaching job that Coach Tom Thibodeau did last night.