BLAME GAME: Boston Celtics FALL in Clutch vs. Pacers, Missed Call FUELS Joe Mazzulla Rant
Boston Celtics stumble in clutch loss to Indiana Pacers as officiating frustrations hit a breaking point. Can the Celtics regroup after three losses in four nights, or will mounting complaints against NBA referees distract from urgent on-court issues?
John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal spotlights the brutal stretch and questions whether missed three-pointers and turnovers—not just a controversial Pascal Siakam illegal screen—cost Boston the win. Key analysis covers Payton Pritchard and Neemias Queta’s standout moments, Derrick White’s rare struggles, and the impact of Jaylen Brown’s absence. With Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman unable to find their rhythm, the Celtics’ shooting woes deepened. John addresses Joe Mazzulla’s postgame statements, the Celtics’ recurring ref grievances, and what the coaching staff must fix before facing the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Are the Celtics focused enough to adjust, or is more late-game heartbreak ahead?
0:00 Celtics vs. Pacers Recap
6:00 Shooting Woes & Missed Opportunities
10:56 Third Quarter Collapse
15:10 Individual Performances Breakdown
22:00 Joe Mazzulla’s “Illegal Screen” Press Conference
27:55 Ref Complaints & Team Response
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24 Comments
now even joe is getting in on it. i dont remember the last time he blamed the refs. its like 5 v 8 every night now. hopefully brad files a formal complaint vs. the league. I'm with Joe and JB. being silent doesnt do us any good anyway. its not like we werent being screwed by the refs before the recent stretch. we dont get those 50/50 calls. i mean as long as they do it during deadballs or postgame. dont let the calls distract you during the game. nor whine incessantly.
this was a frustrating loss as 2nd seed is slipping away again and it was a winnable game. I'm off the anfernee simons train again. this was a game where we needed him the most.
we actually need to shoot well from 3 to actually win a game. and its miami next. a team notorious for being too physical and handsy. gotta score through contact against them. need a bounce back win vs. the heat. beat the heat! Lets go Celtics!
P.S. John i liked your bill kennedy impression "however…". LOL
Finally a decent amount of praise for Queta. The reason why he did so well today is that he had more ball in his hands. Everyone had more eyes for neemy today. Not to say that he isn't open in other games but i think maybe because JB wasnt playing the offense got spread around a bit more rather then majorly through JB. If Neemy gets more opportunities with the ball in his hands he'll keep creating like he did today.
Celts are now 5-13 when we shoot less than 35% from three. That's troubling. And Joe's little temper tantrum was just silly to me. It probably was an illegal screen, but that wasn't why we lost. Once again, we went away from what was working. When we made that run late in the 3rd, it was mainly drives to the hoop. So what do we do in the 4th? Try to chuck our way back into it. Anyway turnovers, poor shooting, best scorer out & no one else stepped up -always a recipe for a loss. Queta was really good but again, shots didn't fall and that 3rd quarter was one of the worst I've seen in a minute.
Thanks John
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Boo we want the intro back disliking the video everyday until it comes back
Excuses, Mazulla should worry about drawing up timeout plays and learn from Brad. Brad Stevens can draw up great timeout plays even with mediocre players.
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It's truly disgusting to watch so-called NBA analyst and fans condone cheating and basically oh well he was illegally screened too bad that's not how basketball works😂😂😂
Anfernee + Boucher for Santi Aldama + John Konchar..avoid the repeater tax
John no offense but you are completely idiotic You're expecting them to sit there and continue to be cheated and everything you just said makes no sense because they already get called for touch fouls 😂😂😂
Why are we acting like it’s not ok to complain when the refs missed a legit call that cost the game. If dwhite doesn’t get switched on him because of the illegal screen Walsh probably does a better job at defending
Joe and JB are absolutely right. Good to see someone standing up about it. Now just don’t start Scheierman ever again and keep Simons in longer in these types of games. White just didn’t have it. We needed scoring.
Basketball is a game of stars. Indy had their all star in Siacam and ours was on the bench. It’s that simple. Whites great but not an all star. This just shows how important Brown has been to our winning this season.
Red said it’s not who starts, it’s who finishes. It was real nice of Joe to reward Baylor with a start, but does that mean he has to finish? 6 seconds to run a play for any kind of shot, he leaves a veteran flamethrower who can get any shot off on the bench. Grow up Joe, and if I want to throw a clip board, I take it from my assistant and throw it myself. I don’t knock it out his hands, not cool. See Spurs game. On to the next one, Celtics Pride!
wtf is baylor starting? as far as the last shot what do you expect when you give it to a person who doesnt score much off the dribble
"It went on yesterday, it's going on tonight, somewhere somebody ain't treating somebody right." The "patterns" should be a concern for the league. I broke out my tin foil hat way early in this season in regards to the ref calls. Maybe I'm just seeing what I'm looking for here, or maybe it's just the oft blamed "call inconsistency". Maybe it's all the big money floating around sports betting now a days, ( just saying) it's not like that never happened before. You'll need some far better statisticians than me to find any patterns. I'm sure the league has a few of them guys on the payroll to look into it. Maybe they should.
he starting lineup he used was trash! we have the slowest team in the nba and you start baylor? wtf is Joe doing at times. you sit all the athletes on the bench is ridiculous. we didnt get hustle plays or dont because everyone is slow. white plays bad because he has a bunch of slow people on the court with him and he is not the fast himself lol
Waah, Waah, Waah…he pushed me…illegal screen…he hit me…he tripped me. If we lose 3 in a row, it ain't the officials. If Indy was healthy, they'd have run us off the floor. Our team has cement sneakers, and no clue as to how to stop opponents from setting franchise records for hitting 3s while clanging our own. If you're missing your main guy, is it wise to start a fella who has never started before? That said, the officiating has been less than stellar, but it's not the reason the team is losing.
Simmons should be an option down the stretch, especially when JB is out
Just an observation but they don't seem as dialed in since coming back from the west coast trip. I'm not sure if it's complacency from being in the position that they're in now since no one expected them to be where they are or if it has more to do with certain players like Walsh and Hugo crashing back down to earth. Either way, they have to refocus. And Minot needs to come out of the doghouse if he's not injured. He consistently gave good minutes and filled in the gaps when it wasn't Walsh's or Gonzalez's night.
I have literally never seen a game reffed the way last night’s game was reffed.
I actually think it was reffed pretty evenly, but zero fouls in the entire third-quarter?
There is not any level of consistency amongst these guys who are theoretically the best refs in the entire world. Why? How is it this bad? Vegas?
Thank you John for pointing that while fouls happen there are many other things that cause these losses as well.
That’s great conflict resolution- repeat the same two words for every question. That helps resolve things. It’s just mature to cut it down to two words and no explanation. You could tell everyone appreciated the response.
Seriously, I wish Joe wouldn’t take his frustration out on the media. Communicate with the NBA or save it for your journal, honestly.
Flare screen John
Recently switch off many games due to atrocious officiating. Once again getting reminded this NBA is not real basketball anymore. It's unwatchable.