Doc Rivers addressed this in his post game press, he had allready called the play in the last timeout, everyone should have known what to do at that point.
Play should have been Pierce in a pick and roll with Ray Allen top of the key with everyone else baseline providing the propper spacing, that just didnt happen, everyone was around the ball making such a play allmost impossible to execute because of lack of space.
Problem was not the play or the lack of a timeout called for the sake of calling a play, everyone had gotten the play explained in the prior time out and Doc Rivers thinking on this one i have to say is solid, if you get the rebound you run the play without the issue of inbounding the ball or giving the Magic a chance to setup anything from a timeout
I just think tired legs caught up to us at this point.. disapointing? yes.. is this on Doc Rivers? im not so sure it is.. we are old, winning two tough series with some of that 08 flair is not going to make that fact go away.
We get another chance in Orlando, better make it count.
This.
The play was called. Rondo was supposed to take his man to the baseline and didn't, which caused poor spacing. With a vet team like the Celtics, you have to trust that they will execute, they just didn't. I don't think you want to allow Orlando the chance to sub in defenders (they would have certainly taken Jameer and Vince out). The Celtics (or at least Paul and KG) were gassed at the end, and that contributed to the loss. A time out would have probably helped, in hindsight, but I can't get on Doc for the call. I think it was the right way to go and a good gamble that just didn't go our way due to poor execution.
Once the play started to break down (which Doc acknowledged, and everyone else could clearly see) why not call a timeout then?
I mean, there were what, 14 or 16 seconds left. It's not like we only had three seconds to get it right.
Heck, with that much time left, and multiple timeouts left, the right call is to call your first timeout, set something up, and if it's well-defended / not working, call your second timeout. Here, we didn't call anything, and ended up with no shot.
In a game where Rondo is playing great in transition, no timeout is the right call. Not last night, though.