For all intents and purposes, the Boston Celtics had punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals midway through the fourth quarter in Game 5 of their first-round series with the Atlanta Hawks. They had a 13-point lead over the Hawks with less than six minutes to play in the game, and Atlanta hadn't really shown any signs of being able to erase that deficit. All was well for the Celtics and their fans.
And then, as we have seen happen so many times with this team, they took their foot off the gas pedal, and let the Hawks rattle off a 23-8 run over the final six minutes of the game to waltz out of Boston with a 119-117 victory. The Celtics will now try to send the Hawks on vacation in Game 6, which requires a trip back to Atlanta that the team surely would have liked to avoid.
For the Celtics, this continues a worrying trend we have seen this current era fall victim to time and again. They never like to make things easy, and their two biggest culprits are two of their most important pieces in Jayson Tatum and head coach Joe Mazzulla. It's only one loss, and Boston should still be able to close out Atlanta, but there are some very worrying signs popping up five games into the playoffs.
Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla are making things harder for the Celtics
Losing Game 5 could have some serious consequences for Boston. Again, they should still win this series, as they are the better team. But now they have to go back to Atlanta, and play in front of a fired up crowd and a team that is riding high on confidence. Dejounte Murray will be back in the fold after being suspended for Game 5, and even if they advance, they are only allowing Joel Embiid (who is dealing with an ankle sprain) and the Philadelphia 76ers more time to rest up.
There's no individual that can single-handedly be held accountable for a loss, because you win and lose as a team in the NBA. But Mazzulla's coaching was a valid concern entering the playoffs, and it certainly looks like an issue after Game 5. Mazzulla's coaching style has been confusing for much of the season, and he is a big reason why Game 5 has gone down as a loss for the Celtics.
Mazzulla made a string of puzzling decisions in the fourth quarter that led to Boston's demise. For starters, he opted to bring Blake Griffin off the bench in the fourth quarter for the first time in the entire series, and he was still on the court with less than five minutes to go in the game. Griffin didn't do anything wrong, but there's literally no reason for him to be playing six minutes in the fourth quarter of a potential close out game.
When Griffin went to the bench, Mazzulla opted to roll with a double-big lineup of Al Horford and Robert Williams, despite the fact that Clint Capela wasn't even on the floor for Atlanta. This suffocated the Celtics offense mightily, due in large part to their inability to get the ball into the paint. Williams had a lot of airspace to work with on offense, but Boston spent most of their time turning the ball over or missing threes.
Further contributing to this mess was Mazzulla pulling Derrick White for Marcus Smart with three-and-a-half minutes left in the game. Smart's tenure with the team, not his skill on the court, has earned him crunch time minutes for the C's, and to be honest, it's pathetic. During this final stretch, Smart committed a pair of turnovers, a foul on Young that gave him two free throws, and was the primary defender for 11 of Young's 14 final points.
Mazzulla realized his mistake pretty quickly and subbed White back on for Smart with 99 seconds left in the game, and he ended up hitting a pair of free throws to put the Celtics back ahead, but it never should have gotten to that point. White has been Boston's third-best player this series; Smart should not be getting crunch time minutes late in the game over him, or even Malcolm Brogdon for that matter. The goal is to win games, not appease Smart by playing him down the stretch.
Mazzulla's stubborn refusal to make things easy is personified on the court by Jayson Tatum. There's no sense beating around the bush; Tatum was awful in Game 5. He shot just 8-21 from the field, including a horrid 1-10 from behind the arc. It's been clear since before this series started that Boston can get whatever they want in the paint; heck, Tatum even shot 7-11 on shots that weren't threes.
Instead, Tatum spent most of the game passing the ball or chucking up threes. Somebody on the coaching staff should have the wherewithal to pull him aside and say “Hey, none of these guys can stop you when you drive to rim”, but instead, Mazzulla seems to be pretty content with Tatum launching stepback threes that come nowhere near the hoop.
Considering the huge championship aspirations surrounding this team, having this series go to six games is extremely irritating. Atlanta simply couldn't miss in Game 3, but Game 5 was a game the Celtics had every right to win. Instead, they decided they wanted to do it the hard way. And with Tatum and Mazzulla directly contributing to the team's struggles, they could be in some serious trouble, especially if they don't finally put this series to rest in Game 6.
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