The Jays have both made mea culpas for their errors that contributed to the loss.
With the Celtics holding a 2-point lead with 26.4 seconds left in overtime the 76ers had 12 seconds left on the shot clock. Joel Embiid got the ball in the paint and attacked the rim. Jaylen Brown left James Harden, who had already hit five 3-pointers, alone in the corner. Embiid dribbled toward Jayson Tatum, sucked in Brown on help, then flipped the ball to Harden in front of the 76ers’ bench. Swish. Philadelphia was up by 1.
“I take full accountability,” Brown said of leaving Harden alone. “It was a bad read. It was my fault.”
With 19 seconds left and two timeouts, and we all know how Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla savors timeouts like silver dollars, the Celtics opted to not stop play and advance the ball.
Marcus Smart dribbled the ball slowly up the floor and lobbed it to Tatum with less than eight seconds left. Tatum needed to go fast. The 76ers were out of fouls. He’s one of the more prolific scorers in the NBA. This was his time to shine.
Instead, Tatum called for a Derrick White screen on Tobias Harris so he could attack the smaller Tyrese Maxey. With three seconds left, Tatum drove to the left, but Embiid approached and Tatum found Smart on the elbow for an open 3-pointer.
It was the right read; the Celtics preach ball movement to the open man, but it was far too late. Smart and Tatum both took too long. Smart’s rushed 3-pointer went in, but after the buzzer, adding insult to poor execution.
“I waited a second too late,” Tatum acknowledged. “When Embiid came over, I tried to kick it out but I probably should have went (accelerated) a dribble or two earlier. I was just trying to make the right play, find the open man.”
Mazzulla was back to his “Joe Cool” personality when asked about the final sequence.
“Jayson made the right play, we just have to play with a little bit more pace,” he said. “Just made the right read, which I thought we did. We got Maxey in the pick-and-roll and he made the right play, just didn’t play fast enough.
“That was a great playoff basketball game. I thought we did a good job sticking with it. We played on the road and a chance to go up 3-1, the game went exactly how I thought it would go and we just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch.”
He was asked about regrets over late-game execution.
“No, it was great execution.”
So Brown admitted fault, Tatum admitted fault, and Mazzulla essentially says, “nothing to see here, we played it perfectly.” Meanwhile, Magic Johnson, who is as congenial on social media as Mr. Rogers, criticized Mazzulla on Twitter for not calling a timeout.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/07/sports/after-holding-his-timeouts-again-joe-mazzulla-needs-accept-his-share-blame-celtics-game-5-loss/
So Joe doubled down...though if you think about it, apologies and my bads are really meaningless...as long as they learn from this then it won't have been a waste. Joe has proven to be stubborn. Maybe he will stick to his guns because he doesn't want his guys to think he doesn't trust them, to the detriment of the team as a whole.
I would have been ok with not calling a timeout IF they had gone fast, and if they had been organized. They weren't fast, it took 15 seconds for Smart to get the ball to Tatum and for Tatum to start driving the ball and there was only 6 seconds left at that point. You'd assume they run all kinds of short clock scenarios that there's any number of plays they could have used, but they had to go quick. That's the only reason you would not call a timeout, because you want to run and catch the opposition off guard and not give them time to set, like we did with
Tatum's last second shot to win a playoff game vs Brooklyn last year. That was a great example of how to go quick without a timeout because the defense was backpedaling and not organized. What we saw tonight wasn't organized, it just looked like it was going to be another iso high screen drive and kick that took too long to execute. At that point you'd think the net gain from calling a timeout to make sure everyone knows what to do and when, despite having to deal with Philly's best defensive lineup, would be greater than freestyling a play because all the advantage from speed had been lost anyway.
It's now a best of 3 but I still like our chances. But they need to take some of these lessons to heart, these possessions are too important.
Topic: Fire Joe! ... or critique Joe ... or defend Joe... or worry about Joe's coaching (Read 264031 times)