Joe Mazzulla – Should have called TO on Celtics final possession

boston celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla admitted Monday that he should have called a timeout before the final possession of his team’s 116-115 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 4, retracting what he originally said about the decision after Sunday’s game.

The Celtics threw the ball with 19 seconds remaining after a james harden Triple, but never fired before the final bell.

Mazzulla defended the strategy after Sunday’s game, but acknowledged Monday that a timeout could have given the Celtics a multiple chance to win the game.

“At the end of extra time, hindsight is 20/20. I should have called [a timeout] to help us get to 2-for-1 or a couple more possessions,” Mazzulla said during a conference call with reporters. So we’ll definitely learn from that.”

The Celtics faced the same scenario late in the fourth quarter. Harden tied the game on a floater with 16.1 seconds left in regulation, and the Celtics got the ball out without calling a timeout. jayson tatumThe drive generated an open three-pointer from smart marcuswho missed when the game went into extra time.

However, Mazzulla stuck to his decision-making late in the fourth quarter.

“It’s something we’ve talked about all year,” he said Monday. “We trust our guys to make the right play. [Not calling a timeout] prevent the other team from getting the matchups off the ground. It prevents the other team from organizing their defense.

“Hindsight is always 20/20, so it sounds good to say, ‘Yeah, we should have done this,’ but we’ve prepared all year as a team to be able to take advantage of those situations. Most of the time it worked for us. I thought the end of regulation worked. We have the last chance, which is what you want. You don’t want them to have a chance too.”

One down late in overtime, Tatum dribbled down the clock and did not start driving to the basket until about five seconds remained on the game clock. He supported his coach’s decision not to call a timeout at the end of the game, but conceded that he should have started attacking the basket sooner.

Tatum recalled how he scored the game-winning layup in the waning seconds of Game 1 of Boston’s 2022 first-round series against the Brooklyn networks because the Celtics threw the ball without calling a timeout, which prevented the opposing defense from organizing.

“We’ve been doing it all year, we’re confident in that,” the Celtics center. Al-Horford he said after Game 4. “The momentum was there. Jayson had the ball in his hands, making a great play and if [Marcus] Smart would have caught him half a second sooner, he would have fallen. I don’t get too hung up on that play.”

Mazzulla, a 34-year-old in his first season as head coach, has been giving his players freedom on final possessions all season without stopping play with a timeout. And while he stuck to the principles behind that decision, he recognized that there were lessons he could learn from Boston’s final possession in overtime.

“I think the two lessons you learn from that are called [a timeout] right away, get a 2-for-1, get two shots, get a couple of extra possessions,” Mazzulla said. “Or we have to have a clear understanding as a team that we have to go faster to get a shot. We have done both throughout the season. We just didn’t run either one in that particular situation.”

The series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Boston.