The Celtics botched the end of their game against the Charlotte Hornets. The easiest, most concise way to put it is they thought they had it wrapped up, they stopped doing the things necessary to close the game, and they blew it.
As I’ve already said, this is going to happen. They're not going to be perfect, and they're not always going to be focused. These things have been happening since the dawn of sports. I’m sure at some point Og took it easy on Grog and lost some caveman game he should have won.
But, we always strive for perfection from our athletes. We like to look at how things should have gone, so let’s do that to see how the Celtics tripped over themselves.
The first thing that stands out is the four offensive rebounds they gave up in the fourth quarter and overtime. Three of those were to Mark Williams in the final six minutes of the fourth.
All three turned into points. All three were preventable. All three follow up shots could have been challenged.
Okay maybe the first one was less preventable than the others. Payton Pritchard was in there and Williams is just taller than him. Even if Pritchard had boxed out better, Williams might have just grabbed that anyway.
But that doesn’t excuse the undisciplined closeout by Sam Hauser. Hauser got sucked into the paint fearing LaMelo Ball would get a clean look, but then he just flew by Brandon Miller. That's a rookie shooting 32% from 3, but Hauser reacts like it’s Steph Curry. That closeout needs to be under control and Hauser needs to stay in front of Miller there.
On the second one, Jaylen Brown just never got in front of Williams to box him out. Bad play there.
On the third one, Jayson Tatum got blown by on the perimeter and then when Williams grabs the blocked shot, which counts as an offensive rebound so this one was just luck, Tatum does nothing to challenge him when he wraps back around the other side. That could have been an easy blocked shot.
That's six points that could have been avoided. The first of those buckets, the Miller jumper, was an incredibly important basket for the Hornets. It was 100-89 and Boston had forced a miss. If Boston could have turned that stop into a basket on the other end, they might not have suffered through a 2:17 scoreless stretch that saw the 11 point lead cut to six.
As much as the final two minutes were a problem, those two minutes-plus might have been more important because that should have been where Boston’s lead grew to 15 or more to put the game away.
Tatum falling down on this shot was a killer in this stretch.
He was slow to get back in transition, leaving Hauser all by himself to guard two guys on the left side.
I think Tatum fell too in love with his jumper at this point of the game. That side step on Hayward is a good enough shot for him, but also Hayward had his hips open and was giving up the baseline. Tatum should have taken that opportunity to collapse the defense.
If Tatum had taken the baseline rive, the help would have come over and opened up at least three possibilities. Jaylen Brown would have been wide open for a corner 3-pointer. Hauser had a cut that he probably should have just taken regardless. And Jrue Holiday could have shot to that strong side corner for Tatum to whip back around and hit him with a pass if needed.
This is a spot where all you need is to string some buckets together. Sure, Tatum can hit that shot, but he can create better ones by driving and collapsing the defense. I just feel like Tatum was felling himself in the midst of a 45 point night, and maybe he wasn't interested in taking the better option at this point.
There was little back-and-forth that was mostly fine. Ball and Williams ran a beautiful pick-and-roll that was just a good play. But then this complete defensive breakdown happened.
Porzingis went up to presumably blitz and trap Ball but he was lazy about it and Ball split it. Then when Hauser came over to help stop the penetration, Holiday's job is to sprint out to pick up Hauser's guy in the corner. Instead, he ran up Balls' back (I presume he was thinking that would be a shot attempt that he wanted to block) and that left Miller wide open in the corner. Brown could have been more proactive at that point, rotating over when he saw what was happening, triggering a bit of a scramble but something Boston could have recovered from. I think Hauser was the only guy who did anything close to right on that defensive possession.
At this point, we're looking at fatigue and a lack of focus. This team is too good to have this bad a defensive possession.
Fast forward. We've already gotten one of the tip-ins. It's a seven-point game with 1:59 to go. Boston needed a bucket and Brown took this fadeaway.
Here's another shot that, in that moment, is a shot a star is supposed to hit. At the same time, there are better options.
Porzingis could have rolled a little bit harder. He had the space to call for and get the lob. He didn't exactly present himself well here, but also that should be an option Brown looked for and I don't think he even considered it.
And then there was this passing lane to Hauser.
I know Hauser was cold, but that's so wide open that the percentage on that has to be higher than the contested shot Brown took.
Okay, so Brown took the shot. Again, stars take those shots and make those all the time. Maybe the worse offense here is that he, Porzingis, and Holiday (who was crashing) all got caught behind the play as Charlotte pushed the ball. They got lost in transition and it led to this.
No communication between Porzingis and Holiday, both went to the same guy in the corner, no one picked up Ball.
Brown then missed a 3 but they whistle Ball for a faceguard boxout on Porzingis. Tatum missed a layup on a gorgeous move after that, which would have sealed it. What can I say about that? He had a layup and missed.
We got the last of those offensive rebounds I mentioned earlier on the other end. Tatum could have probably blocked the shot, but he didn't give a good enough effort there. Even in that moment, there was no boost of desperation to get him to make that last defensive play.
Then Holiday missed two free throws. Again, there isn't much to say about that. At least hit one of them so Charlotte has to go for a 3-pointer. But he missed both. It's tough, and those things happen, but they really shouldn't.
Anyway, that led to this.
Okay. So they took Porzingis out presumably to be more switchable. But no one switched onto Ball. Yes, Ball got away with a push off, but there's a ton of contact going on here. If Porzingis isn't in there so they can switch, then why didn't anyone switch? If Brown was facing the basket, I assume he's positioned that way to take away the 3-pointer.
Someone clearly made a big mistake there. I didn't really see any switching here at all. Either that was supposed to happen and it didn't, or Brown got caught out of position and ended up behind Ball. One way or another, This was just a completely botched defensive possession.
And as I said after the game yesterday, I think the final possession was a bit of a mess. Tatum should have caught the ball in the middle of the floor and ran some kind of action with Porzingis to find a open shot. There was time to do something more than isolate.
The Celtics made so many mistakes down the stretch that they absolutely deserved what they got. This was a comedy of errors, and I'm not even touching the overtime. This game should have been won in regulation, and it should have been won easily. All we can hope for is that they learn from this and close these games out moving forward.