BOSTON – The Celtics should have been ready for this moment.
Joe Mazzola had spent all season preparing his swim team when a wave of pressure tried to drown them out. Throughout the year, Mazzola watches them struggle through times of crisis and keeps that extra time in his pocket, putting them at ease with the discomfort of a breakup.
He wanted them to be more visible in reading the game’s flow when it conflicted with them and communicating adjustments in real time. So when they were floundering against the Lakers over what was about to be the first three-game losing streak of the season in mid-December, Mazzola didn’t lay a lifeline for them.
“It’s more of a surprise if[he does]stop, especially 28 games in or so. We’re used to it,” Tatum said after they came back to beat the Lakers in overtime that night. “Most coaches, 8-0 running, call a timeout. But Joe wants us to understand that and I think in the long run, that will help us once we get to those moments later in the season.”
It lasted one game, as Robert Williams made his first appearance of the season and then they embarked on a three-game winning streak once they reached the Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers. The best team in the league was going down to earth against stumbling but close opponents, which led Boston to understand that this season was not going to be easy.
Mazzola continued to have his timeouts, often managing to extricate themselves from a state of funk in time to avert disaster. But there were a lot of ugly lessons along the way. In the end, they were going to be auditioned by Atlanta.
There was a turning point in game five on Monday when Mazzola could have called a timeout, met with his coaches to see how they adjusted, and then got every player on the same page.
But he trusted his comrades to find out quickly. They’ve been through this enough. This was one of those stumbling moments he was preparing them for.
“We pride ourselves as basketball players on being able to make the right plays and adjustments. Sometimes, we leave that up to the coaches to make that decision,” Jaylen Brown said when asked about Mazzola not calling a timeout when the lead was fading. “But certainly, we have to be better overall as a team, coaching staff, and players in organization in those moments, whether we call it a timeout or not.”
It didn’t work. The Hawks made a 15-2 run at a crucial time to overturn what looked like a solid win for the Celtics to keep the series alive and give Boston their biggest wake-up call of the season after losing 119-117.
The first signs of trouble came with less than five minutes left in the game, when Blake Griffin and Jaylen Brown missed a switch on John Collins’ screen slip, prompting Mazzola to call a timeout and get Horford into the game for Griffin.
They struggled to execute a somewhat generic play to get Brown out of the corner to catch and roll with Williams, forcing Brown to put on his blinders and take out a spinning jacket when Derrick White tried to give him an outlet a bit too late. Collins hit a powerful bucket serve for the second straight play and suddenly it was a two-possession game.
Mazzola had two timeouts in his pocket at this point and now realized he might have a match-winner situation, so saving them both made sense. But the first red flag popped when Tatum got the ball, stood there with the ball on his hands like a closed double, and tried to throw it over the top to a teammate who wasn’t even open. DeAndre Hunter picked him up and after Tatum fouled him, Trae Young hit an unreal deep 3 over Horford.
In those moments, the ball-carrying players need to know how to make better passes and the ball-carrying players need to be available.
“It’s not like rocket science or anything,” said Tatum.
This is the moment most coaches who want to break the pattern call a time-out. Several consecutive possessions with a lethargic execution, while the opponent has hit three hard shots. Calm down the Hawks attack and reset his team. Maybe you put White in one of the big players and give your team another playmaker in charge.
Instead, Mazzola kept moving, calling the Horns their always go-to play when they wanted to get an occasional game and keep things simple. So they went to Young with a move that had been booming earlier in the quarter, making Tatum roll, and Young shockingly made a committed defensive play.
Marcus Smart saw Hunter finally make the right reading to pull off the rebound pass to Tatum, but he didn’t expect Young to jump in and get on the top pass. He could have shown more patience and tipped it to Horford in the corner so they could reset, but they were simply playing fast.
“I think it was more that we lost pace a little bit on the offensive end, partly because I was trying to make sure we had a good game,” Mazzola said. “We’re talking about playing faster down the stretch and I think we lost some of our pace, which allowed them – as I said – to pressure us and get into the passing lanes.”
At this point, the official started working against them as Smart was called somewhat for a moving screen, Young sold the contact on Horford’s hand check, and Tatum said he received a technical foul for slapping an air ball out of bounds. Finally, Atlanta had the lead.
Mazola White got into the game, though he chose to stay big and come out smart. Then at their first chance to find momentum, Brown drove across the lane, missed Horford in the corner, and threw him wide.
“I think we had some plays, some errors, giving them some chances to get going,” Brown said. “We just have to finish the game.”
From that point on, everything went as expected in the chaos of the playoffs. Smart nearly saved the day by stealing from Young, but then moved across to Young for the loose ball to send the Hawks star to the line.
In the end, Atlanta won because their MVP hit a shot of all time. Nobody has a problem giving up 35 feet to get in. Young could catch the leading edge, the Series would out and the Celtics could exhale.
“I mean, if you don’t win, you don’t get carried away, and then you lose your poise,” Mazzola said. “I don’t know if we were trying to do too much, I didn’t think we were ready and we didn’t execute well.”
Ice Tray wins it for the Falcons 🥶
38 points for a Power of 6 😱 game pic.twitter.com/6BOoEh4ZQz
– The NBA April 26, 2023
In the playoffs, the margins are very thin. If you lose your balance in two games and the game costs you, then it was a failure on both counts.
“You can’t give a chance to a team that is already looking to fight for its life,” Brown said. “You can run and point fingers or you can take charge.”
So now comes the real test. Can this team meet? It worked last year, but they were the underdogs. They were hunters. Now they are being hunted. This fight or flight can break up teams. It’s up to Mazzulla and his locker room leaders to make this their biggest lesson ever.
“We have a lot of guys who trust each other,” White said. “We’re just going to lean on each other and get through this together.”
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(Photo by Marcus Smart and Tra Young: Winslow Townson/USA Today)