The Celtics just lost game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, at home, and in horrendous fashion.
In the first half, the Celts were able to contain the Heat on defense while producing in a pass centered offense. Marcus smart had 10 assists by the end of the half, and Boston held a nine point lead going into the second. The C’s also scored a season high for points in the paint for a half with 40.
When the whistle blew to mark the start the third, it was as if the Celtics had their abilities stolen by the Monstars. Passing went out the window, the defense became Swiss cheese, and Miami capitalized on the opportunity. They proceeded to put up a franchise record 46 points in the quarter, seemingly missing no shots from beyond the arc. By the end of the game, Miami shot an absurd 16-31 from three (51.6%) which far outweighed Boston’s 10-29 (34.5%).
Now, onto why I’m saying Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is on the hot seat. In quarters three and four, Mazzulla showcased one of the worst halfs of coaching that I have ever seen in any sport. Let’s start with his use of timeouts. In the first quarter he burned two unnecessarily, and when the Heat began making run after run in the third, he decided against calling a single one. Erik Spoelstra, Miami’s seasoned head coach, did the exact opposite. When the Celtics opened up the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run, he was quick to call a timeout and stop the bleeding. While it is his first season as a head coach, Twitter did not shy away from roasting Mazzulla:
The second flaw in Mazzulla’s coaching was his lineup choices and substitutions. In one of my past blogs, I mentioned how Payton Pritchard should never be on the floor logging important minutes, especially in the playoffs where every second counts. Throughout the playoffs leading up to this game, he had only seen garbage time action, but tonight he registered nearly twelve minutes. That, my friends, is an entire quarter. To go along with this, Grant Williams didn’t step on the parquet once. Also, for most of the time when Pritchard was in the game, he was accompanied by Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon, forming the smallest lineup I have seen from the Celtics in a long time. This allowed Jimmy Butler to get easy buckets by exploiting his height advantage. This mismatch also drew extra defenders which allowed Butler to dish to his teammates, making the Pritchard-White-Brogdon combo a horrible mismatch for Boston. Somehow, Mazzulla failed to recognize this all night.
The final note I have on Mazzulla’s poor coaching is on his offensive strategy and failure to involve Jayson Tatum. Tatum sat the first four minutes of the fourth, and didn’t touch the ball until over two minutes after he checked in. He immediately drew a foul and headed to the line, hitting both free throws. Then, he didn’t touch the ball for another few possessions, finally got it in his hands and received more free throws. For the next two minutes after his second set of foul shots he was nonexistent once more on offense. And when I say nonexistent, I mean standing in the corner with zero involvement in any play. Tatum got understandably cold, and the next three times he touched the ball, he had a terrible turnover and two back-to-back travels. Anybody who has read my Celtics blogs knows that I am harsh on Tatum. However, Joe Mazzulla is to blame for this poor offensive play. There is no excuse for keeping your best player alienated on offense, especially when the opposing star, Jimmy Butler, had the ball in his hands on every single possession.
This was definitely a bit of a rant, but things needed to be said. I just hope that Brad Stevens will instill some knowledge onto Mazzulla before Friday’s game two. This game was so winnable if just a few different decisions were made, so my confidence for the series still remains high. I’m saying it will be Celtics in 6.
See you Friday.