Jaylen Brown did not want to brush aside the Boston Celtics’ collapse against the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday night. Even after winning 11 straight games, Brown said it mattered that the Celtics coughed up a 22-point fourth-quarter lead before losing 105-104 in the final moments. Brown labeled the defeat a “mentality loss.”
Jaylen Brown: “This is a mentality loss, I think.”
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) March 6, 2024
Though you will receive no argument here on that claim, the Celtics have been mentally strong most of the season. As much as Tuesday’s fourth-quarter belly flop resembled past Boston failures, such as the Game 2 loss to Miami in last season’s Eastern Conference finals, the current team has rarely experienced such letdowns. In many ways, the Celtics seem to be wired differently than they were in recent seasons. Even Brown’s urgency after the first loss in a month, with his team still ahead by 7.5 games in the East standings, provided more evidence. Maybe the Celtics don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt because of, well, all their high-profile disappointments over the last several years. But suppose this group continues to display the right mindset the majority of the time. In that case, the disastrous fourth quarter in Cleveland will be remembered as a one-off debacle rather than a symptom of an underlying disease.
There was another piece of that dastardly, Dean-Wade-led fourth quarter meltdown that could matter long term. For the umpteenth time, the Celtics went too slow in a late-game situation.
They received the ball trailing by a single point with 19.1 seconds left, but Jayson Tatum waited 11 seconds to even dribble off a ball screen. He didn’t draw a foul, which was later overturned, until 0.7 seconds remained on the game clock. His shot attempt almost certainly didn’t leave enough time for a potential putback by one of his teammate or for the Celtics to foul Cleveland and get another chance if it missed.
“Probably just should have went a little faster just in case some s— like that happened, maybe we have more time or maybe another opportunity,” Tatum acknowledged to reporters in Cleveland.
Joe Mazzulla agreed with the All-Star forward.
“We just have to play a little bit faster,” Mazzulla said. “Down one in that situation, you try to get a couple more possessions. We’ve just gotta get into it faster, go faster and try to extend the game.”
Playing too slow in big moments has become a troubling pattern for these Celtics. Among other occasions, they lost Game 4 of the second round last season to the Philadelphia 76ers in similar fashion.
Though Tatum didn’t dribble up court against Philadelphia, he showed no urgency getting the ball so he could start his attack. Just like Tuesday, he ran a ball screen with Derrick White to hunt the smallest defender on the court. Just like Tuesday, Tatum waited too long to begin that action. Against the 76ers, he threw a kickout pass to Marcus Smart that did not leave enough time to release a potential game-winner. Forget an extra chance. The Celtics didn’t even produce one. At least they got one against the Cavaliers.
The Celtics shouldn’t be happy about that, though. Down one point, a team should leave enough time on the clock for an offensive rebound or a chance to extend the game with fouls if necessary. After Mazzulla declined to take a timeout initially, his team didn’t show proper time management. He said he actually tried to take a timeout with 4.6 seconds left, but the referees didn’t see him signaling for it. Even calling timeout then would have been too late. The Celtics had already squandered too much time. They were destined to have one shot at the basket, and probably not a good one.
The Celtics must be sharper in these situations. Another mistake like this in the playoffs could decide whether the Celtics advance or go home. It could be the difference in whether a series goes five or seven games. It could determine whether the Celtics are fresh later in the postseason or run down from playing one long series after another, as they have done over the past two seasons. To be clear, this isn’t about Tatum making or missing the shot. It’s about the need for the Celtics to maximize their chances of winning down the stretch of close games. They should have given themselves multiple cracks at the prize, not just one.
The timeout discussion is a different one. In late-game situations, Mazzulla has often let his players go without calling a timeout. That strategy has benefits. On Tuesday, it prevented the Cavaliers from substituting Darius Garland out during a stoppage, giving the Celtics a smaller defender to attack. They went at Garland as they intended. They just did it too late.
Boston’s failure to initiate its offense earlier brought to mind something Mazzulla said before the season on JJ Redick’s podcast “The Old Man and The Three.”
“I stand by my philosophy (regarding timeouts),” Mazzulla said. “Where I have to get better at is the organization of my philosophy. And that’s where I didn’t have time as a coach. I still believe, in certain situations, a timeout is not the best decision. Where I wasn’t good at as a coach was organizing my team properly to take advantage of that situation. I didn’t teach the philosophy well enough. I had the philosophy, but I didn’t teach it well. So the narrative doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is I didn’t do a good job of putting our players in the best possible position to succeed. And that’s a goal of mine heading into the season. Like, OK, I’ve had one year. I’ve built some philosophies. But now I’ve gotta double down on my teaching and I’ve gotta double down on the organization. I’ve gotta make sure that I stand by my philosophy, that we agree on it as a team, but then also that I do a great job of organizing my guys to put them in the best possible position.”
It’s time to triple down on the teaching and the organization. It’s not clear exactly why the Celtics went so slowly Tuesday night, but they need to fix that habit. Their best players, including Tatum, have been in the league too long to keep making the same mistake. Go faster. Go earlier. Leave your team with a margin for error.
Maybe it’s good the Celtics botched late-game time management again before the playoffs. They know they still need to work on it. Now, they should be reminded of its significance. They have another lesson to use, another prime example of what not to do. Having all but wrapped up the top seed in the Eastern Conference already, they should use the last month of the regular season to focus on all the minutiae that could become major playoff factors.
Mazzulla seems to be doing just that. He has said he wants his team to “execute in the present while thinking of the end in mind.” Last week, amid a long winning streak, he brought up how the Celtics had messed up some recent end-of-quarter situations. He knows such mistakes could matter in the more important games to come.
Boston has come a long way in crunch time, but needs to be as poised and prepared as possible for any type of situation. All the numbers suggest this is the best Celtics team since the early years of the Kevin Garnett era. That means the organization has its best chance to take home a championship in 15 years.
After a recent win against Golden State, Brown said he believes it’s the Celtics’ time now. It could be, but only if they avoid screwing it up.
(Photo: Ken Blaze / USA Today)
