There were three main culprits in the Celtics’ Game 5 meltdown that kept the Hawks alive
Tuesday was far from the finest hour for Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, and Joe Mazzulla.
The Celtics have assured us again and again this season that the hard lessons from last postseason have been learned.
We won’t become passive and disconnected with a big lead. We won’t squander prosperity in a playoff series against a lesser opponent. We won’t fall back into bad habits at the worst times. We won’t take anything for granted.
Their words were convincing in one sense: They confirmed that the Celtics, whose fuel tank hit empty in the 2022 NBA Finals in part because they put extra mileage on their legs by blowing winnable games along the way, recognized that they had a problem.
But for most of the season, their words have too often been contradicted by their actions, never more so than Tuesday night. Up 13 points with just over six minutes remaining in Game 5 of their first-round series with the Hawks, the Celtics powered down into passive mode, got outscored, 23-8, from that point forward, and blew the game and a chance to wrap up the series against a pesky but lesser opponent.
They’re supposed to be past this sort of nonsense. They tell us they are past this. And then they go out, build a lead, melt down again, and remind us that the only lesson learned here is that they haven’t learned their lesson at all.
Let’s talk about the three main culprits, if for no other reason than to vent.
· Jayson Tatum: Whenever he has one of these weird, lethargic, out-of-sync games — and he has had them too often in the postseason the past two years — the reaction from some corners of the Internet is predictable: He’s soft. He doesn’t have a killer instinct. He can’t lead this team.
Nah, that’s not it. He’s a 25-year-old first-team All-NBA player who went on the road in Game 6 against the Bucks last year and dropped 46 points in Giannis’s mug during an elimination game. He has it in him.
You want him to be more like Jimmy Butler, do you? Tatum is eight years younger, has won as many playoff series (8) as Butler, and has been to more Eastern Conference Finals (3-2) and as many NBA Finals (1).
Butler is amazing, but people around here talk about him as if he made that pull-up three at the end of Game 7 of the Celtics-Heat series last year. (He did not.)
Tatum’s story is still being written, and I’m encouraged about the chapters to come. He’s an elite talent who works relentlessly and cares about doing the right thing. Of course, that’s part of why his performance Tuesday night, and others like it, are so frustrating. His decision-making was abysmal. He forces high-degree-of-difficulty threes when he can smoke the Hawks defenders at will.
And that passivity extends to other parts of his game. I’ve seen enough of those one-handed, long-windup passes that give defenders an extra fraction of a second to jump in the passing lane. For someone who cares so much, why is he so careless sometimes?
· Marcus Smart: Celtics fans have long had a slogan in support of the franchise’s most polarizing player since Antoine Walker: “Love and trust.”
I get the love part, especially when those shades of Dennis Johnson show up in his game, but the trust part? That has to be waning for everyone but his coach.
There is no rationale at this point for having Smart on the court at the expense of Derrick White late in games. None. White is better at everything than this version of Smart other than causing chaos. And there are certain situations, including Tuesday night, when Malcolm Brodgon — an efficient and poised offensive player — should be on the court over him as well.
Yet Brogdon did not play in the final 7:22. Smart subbed in for White with 3:26 left. White came back in at 1:39, then Smart returned for White (inexplicably) with 30.4 seconds remaining. Fifteen seconds later, he committed a foolish foul on Trae Young, lunging for the ball when the Hawks were in the bonus. Young hit both free throws to put the Hawks up, 116-115.
To call it a knuckleheaded play would be an insult to knuckles. Longtime Smart watchers can tell when this stuff is coming. He starts playing as if he’s attached to an IV of Red Bull, flopping around, setting screens that invite a whistle, and getting cute with shot-clock shenanigans.
Smart has a knack for making zany, crucial defensive plays, but it was evident that he was inviting the bad kind of chaos Tuesday night. Joe Mazzulla must see this. But I suspect Smart gets the benefit of the doubt because the coach sees a lot of himself in the player.
· Joe Mazzulla: Sigh. This isn’t good. Not good at all.
From the weird White/Brogdon/Smart usage, to burying Grant Williams, to dusting off Blake Griffin for a few fourth-quarter minutes, to going with double bigs down the stretch that allowed Young to get repeated perimeter mismatches with Al Horford, to refusing to repeatedly scream “Run! RUN!” Tommy Heinsohn-style whenever the pace slows to a crawl in the fourth quarter, the intense rookie coach did not have his finest hour — or at least final six minutes — in Game 5.
He’s too math-dependent, preferring to count by three no matter the circumstances rather than having game situations dictate his team’s approach. He’s stubborn, and frankly lacks the gravitas to be making so many illogical decisions. And the game still speeds up on him when the stakes are highest.
No one should be near the point of logging on to Ask.com (the artist formerly known as AskJeeves) and typing in, “Has a coach ever been replaced during the playoffs?” But coaching is not an advantage for the Celtics in this matchup, and it may not be in any series the rest of the way.
It’s up to the players to get their act together. They’ve told us time and time again that they will. Time to see it.
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