The Celtics had their 11-game winning streak snapped Tuesday night with a 105-104 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
For nearly 40 minutes, Boston seemed to have firm control of the game. Throughout the first three quarters, the Celtics’ defense shut down the shorthanded Cavaliers squad, missing Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus due to knee injuries and losing Evan Mobley to a sprained ankle in the third quarter.
Instead, the Celtics blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead, their largest blown fourth-quarter lead in the 28 years of the play-by-play era.
Behind 20 points from Dean Wade on a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and 5-of-5 from deep, the Cavs closed the game on a 34-11 run. All of Wade’s 20 points came during that stretch, stunning the Celtics.
Prior to Tuesday night, the Celtics had won 34 consecutive games when leading by 20 or more points and were 51-1 when leading by 20 or more under Joe Mazzulla.
“It looked like the game was ours to take, and we didn’t close it out,” Kristaps Porzingis said postgame. “We gave them a little bit of life, the crowd got into it, and that was it.”
Boston’s tendency to let their foot off the gas has been a recurring issue in recent years, although it hasn’t been all that common with the new-look Celtics. Entering Tuesday night, the C’s were 45-3 when tied or leading at the start of the fourth quarter, underscoring that point.
“We are a much better team than we showed today,” Jaylen Brown said postgame. “This is a mentality loss, I think. We had the game, and then we got comfortable. It was more of a mindset thing than X’s and O’s. We’ve gotta be the more disciplined, more militant team and be focused. We weren’t that, and usually we are that.”
Mazzulla frequently emphasizes the interconnected nature of offense and defense in basketball, highlighting how one affects the other. This truth was starkly evident on Tuesday night as the Celtics faltered defensively in the fourth quarter, resulting in their offense becoming stagnant.
“It’s tough,” Jayson Tatum said postgame. “Normally, we like to play in transition – cross matches, but we weren’t getting many stops, and that’s tough.”
The C’s were outscored 34-17 in the fourth quarter, their 17 points tied for their second-fewest points scored in any quarter this season. Meanwhile, the Cavs knocked down 10 consecutive makes in a nearly 10-minute stretch. Eight of those 10 makes were threes.
“Everybody is gonna have their perspective on it,” Brown said of the loss. “Mine is: that’s what happens when you don’t match the gas and take little things for granted throughout the game, and you let a team stick around. They’re still NBA players. Tip your cap to Dean Wade. He got hot. We weren’t expecting that, but we still should’ve won this game.”
Here are three takeaways as the Celtics suffer their first loss in over a month.
Bizarre ending
After a Dean Wade put-back gave the Cavs a one-point lead with 19.1 seconds remaining, the Celtics had a chance to take the lead with the clock winding down. Considering there were 19.1 seconds on the clock, the Celtics didn’t have to hold on for the last shot.
Mazzulla elected not to use a timeout following the Wade dunk, and Tatum slowly walked the ball up the court. With the Celtics trying to set their offense in the halfcourt, Tatum didn’t cross the three-point line until there were nearly four seconds left of play, which led to him isolating Darius Garland and launching a fadeaway jumper that missed.
Garland was initially called for a foul, which would have sent Tatum to the line for game-winning free throws, but the call was overturned after a challenge, leading to a jump ball at midcourt and the 0.7 seconds running out.
In a pool report after the game, Crew Chief Zach Zarba explained why the foul call on Garland was overturned.
“In our opinion, there was clear and conclusive evidence that the leg extension by Tatum created that marginal contact with the defender Garland where otherwise contact wouldn’t have been made. That’s why it was overturned.”
“It’s our opinion that the leg extension by Tatum created the marginal contact, and Garland did not make any illegal contact at all. That’s why it was overturned.”
The miss solidified Boston’s fifth loss this season when the game is within one point in the final 10 seconds. They are 2-5 in such situations.
“I thought I got fouled, but they didn’t think I got fouled,” Tatum said postgame. “It’s tough because we would’ve had the tip-in. It’s just a weird way to end a game. But they always say a game isn’t won or lost on the last play. There are a lot of things that we didn’t do well in that fourth quarter that put us in that situation.”
After the game, Mazzulla claimed he attempted to call a timeout when he saw the offensive process slowly developing. “I called one at 4.6 [seconds], but they didn’t see it,” the bench boss said.
While the officials may have made some questionable calls or non-calls down the stretch, it’s foolish to solely blame them. Boston should never have found itself in that situation in the first place.
On the clutch offense
Overall, Boston’s clutch offense and execution have been much better this season.
“We’re not perfect, but we’ve done a better job this season,” Tatum said on the clutch offense. “We could’ve done a better job tonight. Maybe our spacing and execution, working to get a great shot.”
It’s never going to be perfect — that’s the nature of the beast.
However, on the whole, Boston has been pretty good in that department. With the loss Tuesday night, they dropped to 18-9 in clutch situations. Their 18 wins are tied for the third most in the league, while their nine losses are the second-fewest. Overall, their 66.7% winning percentage is third-best in the NBA and the best in the Eastern Conference.
The NBA defines the “clutch” as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points. While the offense has performed adequately in these moments, the same cannot be said when scrutinizing the finer details – Tuesday night served as another reminder of that.
As alluded to, the Celtics are 2-5 when the score is within one point in the final 10 seconds. Those six losses account for 55.5% of Boston’s clutch losses and 38.4% of their total losses this season. In those situations, they are shooting 1-of-8 (12.5%) from the field and 0-of-2 from distance.
When it comes to the late, late-game execution, the Celtics haven’t been spectacular.
It’s evident that the Celtics don’t have many weaknesses. With a record of 48-13, they stand head and shoulders above the rest of the league. While Tuesday night’s outcome didn’t alter this fact, it did highlight one of the few areas where the Celtics need major improvement.
Learn from the mistakes
Adversity isn’t always a bad thing, especially when your NBA team hasn’t faced any in over a month.
“I think it’s healthy for us,” Porzingis said on the loss. “We do have a feeling that we’re like, we’re going to win every game, we’re invincible. We’re going to win this game. No matter what happens, we’re like, ‘We got this.’ A little bit of that feeling is always there, which may be healthy, but it’s also healthy to get a loss here and there to recalibrate a little bit and have that attention to detail again. I think it’s completely fine, and I think it’s necessary for us to keep building.”
Sometimes, the best way to learn is through your mistakes.
The Celtics have remained grounded in their philosophy of winning every day, whether that be a practice, a game, or a shootaround, all season long. However, Tuesday night marked the first instance this season when they seemed to stray from this philosophy, and it was only for nine minutes.
This team understands the importance of staying focused for an entire 48 minutes. A lesson learned the hard way from their postseason struggles last year. Tuesday night served as a humbling reminder of this, one the Celtics won’t ignore.
“Today matters. Whether everybody wants to throw it away or not, we’ve gotta look at the film and address some stuff because that matters,” Brown said postgame. “Your habits are everything. Your mentality is everything. Every game, you can’t waste possessions, [or] time out there on the floor. Today matters. We need to look at that.”
It’s now on film, and the Celtics can learn from those mistakes. Their ability to respond is well documented. The last time they faced adversity, losing to a shorthanded team, they ripped off an NBA-best 11-game win streak.
“This year, we’ve done a really good job of responding,” Tatum said postgame. “I look forward to us responding and playing better on Thursday.”
That they have. Boston has not lost consecutive games since the second week of the season. Overall, they are a league-best 11-1 coming off a loss.
They’ll have a chance to bounce back against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.
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