Nine seconds after Jaylen Brown nailed a 13-foot step-back jumper to break a 100-100 tie, the Celtics looked like they were in full control. A technical foul on Trae Young following an Onyeka Okungwu turnover and a made free throw after the technical by Jayson Tatum, gave Boston a three-point cushion with just 20 seconds remaining and possession of the ball.
The Celtics were on the verge of closing out a game that, frankly, neither team deserved to win. But, in a familiar turn of events, they completely fell apart, ultimately losing 119-115 to the Atlanta Hawks.
It all started with a costly miscue from Jrue Holiday—an errant pass that slipped off Jaylen Brown’s hands and out of bounds with 15 seconds left. From there, the Celtics played the foul game up three, but Tatum missed a crucial free throw, giving Atlanta a chance to tie or win. A baffling take foul from Holiday on Young (an 87% free throw shooter) allowed the Hawks to tie it up, sending the game into overtime after Tatum’s missed shot at the buzzer.
In overtime, the Celtics continued to squander opportunities. They gave up three offensive rebounds, the most costly when Jalen Johnson missed two free throws with 12 seconds left. Okongwu grabbed the rebound on the second miss and calmly sank two free throws after a take foul, sealing the game and wiping out any of the positive momentum Boston had built the night before in their win over the Magic.
“I think we had the game won,” Holiday said after the game. “I’ve got to make some better plays. Make a better pass to JB, or maybe if I hold onto the ball and get free throws, it’s a different situation. I don’t foul Trae; we’re still up two. So this game is on me, and execution on my part has to be better.”
Photo credit Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
The decision-making and execution down the stretch were inexcusable, leading to a well-deserved L for the Celtics. While the implosion in the final 20 seconds will dominate the conversation around the game, it’s only a microcosm of an issue that runs much deeper. It follows the same script we’ve seen from this team for the last month and a half. A reality that Joe Mazzulla hinted at postgame.
“I just didn’t think we executed our best down the stretch. That’s the lesson. We’ve got to get better at our late-game execution,” Mazzulla said. “When you’re in a game like this, it’s so easy to just look at those last segments. Yeah, we had a chance to win it, and we didn’t execute it, that’s a fact. But we also had a 15-point quarter in the second quarter because of our space, our execution, and we missed shots. So, the low-hanging fruit is to focus on the last few plays, which, yes, are important; you have to execute those, and we didn’t. But there’s still plenty of plays throughout that we could get better at in a close game like that.”
The Celtics are now 10-9 since starting the season 19-4. During this stretch, they’ve been just 5-6 at home and have only won consecutive games twice. Every time they’ve taken a step forward, they’ve followed it up with two steps back, constantly plagued by the same inconsistencies.
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A year ago, the Celtics prided themselves on staying locked in and engaged for the full 48 minutes of a game. While it’s unrealistic to expect that throughout an entire 82-game season for a championship-defending team, this group is now reeling. Their dominant 19-4 start feels like a distant memory, and with them stuck around .500 for over a month, it should prompt more urgency to figure things out.
Lulls are inevitable in basketball—people often call it a game of runs, and that’s true. But the prolonged periods of poor execution can’t keep happening. As Mazzulla pointed out, the Celtics scored just 15 points in the second quarter. Before Saturday night, they had only been held to 15 points or fewer in a quarter twice: the third and fourth quarters in Oklahoma City, which, not surprisingly, were the worst stretches of execution they’ve had all season.
Mazzulla brought up “execution” at least a dozen times, and the lack of it has been the Celtics’ biggest issue during this stretch. They’ve shown they can execute—despite some shaky shooting, they built a 12-point lead in the first quarter, only to watch it vanish in the second. They answered with a 23-9 run to close the third, but once again, another double-digit lead slipped away in the fourth.
“We just have to execute better on those things — a team calls a timeout, you’re up 10, it can’t be a 10-2 run after that,” Mazzulla said. “You can’t have a 15-point quarter, and then you have to execute down the stretch. It’s that simple.”
Photo credit Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images
It goes without saying that execution is even more crucial down the stretch of a close game, something the Celtics have struggled with all season. Their defensive rating in the clutch (final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points) is 118.0, ranking 25th.
In the fourth quarter of losses this season, they sit 29th in defensive rating (129.8), 28th in offensive rating (102.2), and dead last in net rating (-27.6) — a night-and-day difference from a season ago.
“You’ve just got to do the simple things extremely hard all the time,” said Tatum. “We’ve done that. We’re capable. We’ve gotta get back to that.”
Photo credit Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
While they continue to point to missed shots, which admittedly puts pressure on execution—and they struggled again Friday night, shooting 38.5% from the field and 28.8% from three—the problems go deeper than that.
The Celtics need to return to that “mindset” they prided themselves on a year ago, starting with their focus and making sure they execute the way they know they can for a full 48 minutes.
The shooting will eventually return to form. In the meantime, the Celtics need to control what they can control—focus, intent, intensity, and execution—something they haven’t done during this frustrating stretch.
“Nobody in here is used to losing or wants to lose, so it’s definitely frustration,” Derrick White said. “We’ve just got to stick together. And I mean, everybody believes in one another, everybody’s done a lot of great things with this team, and so we believe in each other and just keep going.”
