Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was criticized numerous times during the regular season for his unwillingness to call timeouts when his team got into trouble or allowed runs during pivotal moments in games.
Mazzulla’s comments and outright rebuttals during press conferences indicated he heard those criticisms loud and clear. But the first-year coach maintained that he wanted his players to figure it out for themselves in situations and games where the stakes might not be as high. The majority of the time, that’s what happened. The Celtics would pull out a meaningless win over the New Orleans Pelicans or something.
However, the stakes were much higher in Tuesday’s Game 5 collapse to the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden. And Mazzulla’s strategy caught up to the group in a meaningful moment.
The Celtics would have advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a victory over the Hawks, a game in which they had a 98.4% probability of winning with 6:10 remaining, per ESPN. Instead, behind a string of “boneheaded” plays on offense and a crunch-time shooting display by Hawks guard Trae Young, Atlanta ended the game on a 20-6 scoring run over the final 5:24 and earned a 119-117 victory.
Mazzulla called a timeout with 4:31 left when the Green held a 111-103 lead. Boston had two timeouts left after that one. Their next Mazzulla-instructed stoppage came with 9.1 seconds remaining as Boston faced a 116-115 deficit. During that span, a 13-4 run for Atlanta, Boston went 2-for-6 from the field with four turnovers and one technical foul. After three turnovers in 1:34, it felt like the Celtics could have benefited from a stoppage. No dice, despite the fact Mazzulla later admitted the team lost its poise.
Perhaps Mazzulla did too.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown was asked about how his coach again gave the players the leeway to figure it out for themselves. It was an aspect Brown and others appreciated in mid-November. But his response Tuesday night was, well, different.
“We pride ourselves as basketball players on being able to make the right play and adjustments. At times, we leave that up to the coaches to make that decision,” Brown told reporters, per the NBA. “But for sure, we gotta be better overall as a team, coaching staff, and players on getting organized in those moments, whether we call timeouts or not.”
The adult in the room sometimes needs to be the adult in the room.
This isn’t to say Mazzulla not holding a powwow with his players is why the Celtics lost the game. Absolutely not. Boston’s veteran players — Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Brown — all gave the ball away in crunch time. Smart’s personal foul on Young at half court, which came with 15 seconds left as the Celtics clung to a 115-114 lead, was one of his dumbest plays in a long time. The players on the floor were responsible far more than Mazzulla and Young’s 30-footer for the win undoubtedly was a great shot.
But when the Celtics took their foot off the gas and their lead slashed, Mazzulla stood by and watched like the rest of the Green Teamers screaming at their television sets.
Mazzulla wanted the Celtics to learn a lesson from his lack-of-timeout strategy. He wanted them to be able to figure it out for themselves when situations presented themselves down the road. But the team truly could benefit from Mazzulla learning and revising his initial plan, too.
