The Boston Celtics had a chance to close the game in both the fourth quarter and in overtime, however they didn’t execute properly and it cost them the game.
Marcus Smart missed an open 3-pointer at the end of regulation that would’ve sealed the deal, but was given another opportunity to do the same thing in overtime, however it didn’t go as planned.
The Celtics wasted too much time in getting the ball into the half court and Joe Mazzulla didn’t call a timeout that would’ve redirected them right to the half court for an inbound after the timeout.
Boston received the ball with 18.2 seconds remaining in overtime and didn’t make a play until 4.2 seconds remaining. Jayson Tatum sat at the top of the arc waiting for something to develop. It was much before this moment that Mazzulla should’ve issued one of his two timeouts to the officials and drawn up a play.
Instead, Tatum drove to the basket and kicked the ball back out to Smart who was WIDE OPEN for a game-winning buzzer beater to close out Game 4. However, Tatum didn’t give Smart enough time, putting the ball up just one second too late as the backboard lit up red as the final buzzer sounded off.
With 18.2 seconds on the clock, Smart gets the ball into the half court with 12.6 seconds left and made a pass to Tatum with 7.8 seconds showing. Tatum then stands there until 4.2 seconds remaining in the game. That’s a total waste of 14 seconds of not doing anything productive to win the game in the final moments.
Perhaps Boston will play better in Game 5 back at home, but they’ll still have to come back to Philly at least one more time now.
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One response to “Celtics didn’t execute down the stretch in OT, miss opportunity to win Game 4”
[…] Celtics had 18.2 seconds in the final moment of Game 4 and they did absolutely nothing with it as head coach Joe Mazzulla was hoping his team […]
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