Mazzulla breaks down final possession vs. Cavaliers, ‘I called a timeout’

Mazzulla breaks down final possession vs. Cavaliers, ‘I called a timeout’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Tuesday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers ended in heartbreak for the Boston Celtics, ending their 11-game win streak by blowing a 22-point lead with under nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. Fueled by a 23-point barrage from Cavalier Dean Wade, Wade alone outscored Boston in the fourth quarter, 20-17, finishing 6-of-9 from deep. Wade’s putback dunk in the final seconds also ended up being the game winner.

Despite blowing their large lead, the Celtics still had a chance to win the game. Following Wade’s go-ahead dunk, Boston took possession down one with 18 seconds left in the game. Jayson Tatum brought the ball up the court extremely slowly, holding the ball around center court to take the clock down to eight seconds.

Finally making a move on Darius Garland, Tatum drove in to the post and attempted to spin off Garland to hit a fadeaway mid-range shot. The shot bounced off the rim and out, and Kristaps Porzingis was there for the putback — but a foul was called against Garland to send Tatum to the line.

Upon further review, the referee’s deemed the contact was only in result of Tatum swinging his leg out, so the foul was recalled, and the game would resume with a jump-ball at center court with less than a second to go, despite the clock seeming to show more time at the time of Garland’s recalled foul.

Porzingis won the tip, with Derrick White catching the ball. White attempted to immediately call a timeout, but the refs called the game. Following three questionable calls to end the game — the recalled foul, the time on the clock, and not honoring White’s timeout — the Celtics fell 105 to 104 to the Cavaliers.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla spoke to the media following the loss to add in another interesting element — he claimed to have called a timeout with 4.6 seconds left on the clock, before Tatum’s shot attempt.

“I called one at 4.6 [seconds], but they didn’t see it” Mazzulla said of his attempted timeout.

As for holding for the last shot and taking their time on the final possession while being down one point, Mazzulla acknowledged the mistake, saying they need to be faster moving forward.

“We got to go faster there,” Mazzulla added. “I thought [Derrick] White got the matchup we wanted into it, we just got to play a little but faster. Down one in that situation, you try to get a couple more possessions, and we just have to get into it faster, go faster, and try to extend the game.”

As for the 22-point blown lead, Mazzulla said the team went cold in the fourth quarter and gave Cleveland life.

“I thought we just went cold,” Mazzulla added. “I thought we had some really good possessions where we didn’t make the shot, and I thought we had some tough shots. Credit to them, I thought Wade played really well, I thought they made plays down the stretch.”

The Celtics scored just 17 points on 8-25 from the field, 0-8 from deep in the fourth quarter, where the Cavaliers couldn’t miss, hitting 11-15 of their attempts, 8-11 from deep for 34 points.

Boston will look for a bounce back win on Thursday night at 10:00 p.m. ET as they take on the Denver Nuggets on the road in what could be an early preview of the 2024 NBA Finals.