The Boston Celtics had one chance to escape their worst nightmare in Game 2 against the New York Knicks. It didn’t work out, and more than a few people had the same question.
Why didn’t Joe Mazzulla use his final timeout?
Advertisement
With 12.7 seconds left, the Celtics got the ball back down 91-90 after a pair of Jalen Brunson free throws. Rather than stop play and advance the ball, Boston’s head coach allowed his team to play on, which resulted in an ill-fated drive by Jayson Tatum and a game-sealing steal by Mikal Bridges.
NBA head coaches will almost always call a timeout in those situations so they can draw up an inbounds play and not have to worry about moving the ball from the opposite play. However, Mazzulla had a solid explanation after the game:
“Had one [timeout] left, got a good look in the exact same play 20 seconds earlier. Tried to execute the exact same thing, they did a better job of their lower pick-up point and we weren’t able to get the advantage that we had on the last Tatum dunk. Good fullcourt setting, they subbed out [Karl-Anthony] Towns, weren’t able to sub out Brunson. Had action there, just didn’t execute.”
Basically, Mazzulla didn’t want to allow the Knicks to sub out Brunson, a superlative offensive player who has never been known for his defense, and he figured the Celtics did enough the last time they ran the play they ended up using.
Advertisement
As Mazzulla noted, Boston got two of their easiest points of the game when Tatum took the ball on the previous possession and ran it coast-to-coast for a go-ahead dunk.
Of course, it shouldn’t be too big a surprise that a Tom Thibodeau defense was better prepared for a play being run on a second straight possession. Sometimes playoff coaching is about going with your gut and Mazzulla just bet wrong on Wednesday.
The Celtics now trailed 0-2 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which is now headed to New York for two games in front of a hostile Madison Square Garden crowd. Any hope of their own comeback, and a second straight title, depends on taking at least one, and preferably both, of those games.
Read the full article here
