What a massive choke job by the Celtics. Trae Young going off, why didn’t Joe Mazzulla have the Celtics send two at him? Where was Malcolm Brogdon? Mazzulla watched that collapse and did nothing.
What a massive choke job by the Celtics. Trae Young going off, why didn't Joe Mazzulla have the Celtics send two at him? Where was Malcolm Brogdon? Mazzulla watched that collapse and did nothing.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) April 26, 2023
by horseshoeoverlook
26 Comments
We let Jay Larranga go to the Clippers and Jamie Young go to the Sixers for this asshole.
The Celtics defensive scheme is to never throw a double team and never go over screens. Didn’t you see it worked perfectly last postseason against the best shooter of all time? /s
Joe Mazzulla putting his faith in Blake Griffin at the 6 minute mark in the 4th quarter is what did it for me
Mazzulla running a double big lineup late when the easiest way to blow the lead was giving up 3s. Then draws up an inbound play for a 1/5 Horford? His first real playoff test and absolutely flunked it.
I wouldn’t call this on Mazzula, although maybe having Blake out there wasn’t ideal.. this is on JT and Smart for making boneheaded decisions and the defense just failing to get any stops..
the last thing I wanna see is KOC’s face after the game
100%. Rare KOC good point
They are scared shit of Smart. Everyone in this organization is. From Brad now to Mazzulla. They are scared shit of this guy. They won’t bench him or reprimand him in anyway. Brogdon should have been in to end the game over his fucking trash ass.
This is such a joke lol did Joe Mazzulla tell Smart and Tatum to turn the ball over 2 straight possessions?
That’s where we lost the game…Trae hit a fucking 30 footer lol
Celtics gonna Celtic. Choke jobs are our brand.
Dude been chucking 3’s from half court all night. And they let him get another shot at it. Get the damn ball out if Trae’s hands.
Ol’ clappin’ Joe. From the Jason Garret school of clueless clappers. But…
Smart fucked us in the last few minutes. Get his ass outta there at the end of games with his stupid fouls and turnovers. White has been better all year.
lowk cold take atp: mazzulla is a fraud coach he is rlly not that good.😭 biggest mistake we made as a org is to fire udoka. a top 3 coach like that doesn’t come again. i wish we could go after nurse but i highly doubt something like that happens. mazzulla has horrible rotations and his play style of live and die by the 3 will fail us at some point in this playoff run
Anyone watching last years playoffs and this season should not be surprised at what happened.
I hate how it seems like marcus closing is his birthright
Blame Joe all you want but he shouldn’t have to tell his superstar and DPOY PG to lock it in mentally.
Tatum stopped playing basketball for the second half and Smart made about 4 dumb plays in a row.
Is it really playoff Celtics if we don’t constantly make shit harder for ourselves?
Hes not ready to be a HC.
Where was Grant
I’m in the camp of Mazzulla throwing the game away. First, his rotations were all wrong. What was Blake doing in the 4th quarter? Why isn’t Brogdon out on the floor more? Why did they go away from what was working and keep attacking Trae with the 1 big 4 small lineup? Going with the big lineup in the last couple minutes of the game was egregious because we know ATL was going to score regardless but they cannot defend us, so why did we make it difficult for ourselves on offense? I have rarely seen a coach singlehandedly lose a game, but Mazzulla did it tonight.
I almost have the sense that because MAZZULLA himself thought the game was in the bag, so HE began to dick around for the next game experimenting with random lineups instead of what is working. You just CANNOT do that in a close-out game 5. Now you have to go win game 6, and who knows if Tatum or Jaylen will randomly get hurt because of the extra game. This is a preventable loss and I think it’s all on the coach for either not putting his players in the right positions to succeed, not putting the right mindset into the players, or both.
Sorry for the long rant, but I was at the game, and as soon as White hit both free throws, I know Trae will win the game with a long 3, because offense and being a cold-blooded assassin with the ball are the things that he is excellent at, AND WE LET HIM DO ALL THIS.
5 games in and mazulla hasnt made any adjustments to stop the pick and roll. Brad stevens was hiding isaiah thomas on defense in playoff series there are levels to this.
The core of this team— Smart, Brown, and Tatum — has done this through three different coaches. It’s THEM.
Not only that, 0.5 seconds on the clock and you go for three?
Why is everyone blaming coach? Why don’t we blame our players like Tatum and smart for the turnovers and lack of composure in the final minutes?
This core has struggled to close out big games for as long as they’ve been together
Same issue all season we’ve been pissing and moaning about smart closing games since like the 20 game mark but here he is still closing games
This is the cute part where everyone has a meltdown until we win game 6 and forgets this happened
No one on the 08 team won dick until they did. Their first two series went 7. Their next two went 6.