
The Celtics need to improve their execution in clutch circumstances late in games.
On a nightly level, the Celtics have a good handle on the first 47 and three-quarter minutes. They merely need to address the last 15 seconds.
Even the NBA’s most dominant teams must ultimately win close games in the playoffs, and how a club handles those situations may mean the difference between hoisting a banner and hanging their heads. Just ask the 73-win Warriors of LeBron James’ chase-down legend.
The Celtics can run anyone off the court, as they demonstrated in spectacular fashion during Sunday’s 52-point rout of Golden State. But their late-game execution still sputters too often, as was once again the case in Tuesday’s bizarre loss to the Cavaliers.
The game will be remembered mostly for the Celtics squandering a 22-point lead in the final nine minutes and briefly transforming the unremarkable Dean Wade into Hall of Famer D-Wade during his 20-point fourth quarter performance.
Despite their defensive mistakes and erratic shooting, the Celtics still had a chance to win with 19 seconds remaining and the ball in Jayson Tatum’s hands. However, as has been the case too frequently this year, their final attempt was a low-percentage one.
A foul call almost saved them, but Darius Garland’s contact with Tatum’s leg was overruled, wiping out Kristaps Porzingis’ game-winning putback. (Colleague Chris Forsberg delves into the play, including its 19-dribble anguish and some of the greater concerns it portends, here
)..
If it appears that the Celtics never get a solid shot to tie or take the lead in the last seconds of regulation or overtime, that is because that is pretty much the case. They’re only 1-for-12 in such scenarios, and their lone make never even touched the bottom of the basket: Detroit’s Cade Cunningham called for an oh-so-close goaltend on a Tatum finger roll in December.
At least it was a layup. More often are shots like Tuesday’s, in which the ball never left Tatum’s hands before he made a Kobe Bryant-esque 17-foot fallaway. Tatum has also missed variants of the shot against the Pistons, Timberwolves, and Nuggets, going 1-for-7 in such situations overall. It may be the lowest-percentage shot in his vast arsenal, but it is always where the Celtics settle when the game is on the line.