The Boston Celtics seemed to have Game 7 on lockdown until news arrived over an hour or so before tipoff that their superstar, Jayson Tatum, would sit on the sidelines due to injury concerns.
Reports suggested Tatum had knee stiffness, and as a precaution, the team decided to keep him off the court, allowing the squad that won games this season without him to try to get it done. Unfortunately, they could not get it done because the Philadelphia 76ers had all their stars available, including big man Joel Embiid.
Philly picked up a 109-100 win to advance, thanks to 34 points and 12 rebounds from Embiid, along with 30 points and 11 rebounds from guard Tyrese Maxey. Rookie V.J. Edgecombe contributed 23 points, grabbed six boards, and dished out four assists to help stun Boston’s fans.
It’s hard to place too much blame on specific Celtics players, but ahead of the series finale, critics noted their overreliance on hitting their three-pointers to win. That once again became a theme that haunted Boston, as they launched 49 of them and hit 13. Unfortunately, those big-time shots weren’t falling when they needed them most.
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As one might expect, when a team is up 3-1 and ends up blowing that lead and losing a massive Game 7 at home, the head coach tends to receive a lot of the blame. And that was the case for Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, as many fans on the X platform blamed him for the loss.
“Mazzulla will never live down blowing a 3-1 lead with two home games left against a play-in team. He is in his Doc Rivers era,” one individual wrote on X.
“All I need is Mazzulla gone, just please please Brad [Stevens] get him gone for good. It’s been nothing but letdowns for 2 straight years and Tatum’s prime is going to end someday,” another commenter said.
Others said, “Mazzulla is The biggest fault .. just keep chucking 3s boys,” and “Mazzulla gotta go. Horrific game plan for a game 7 at home.”
“Congrats on making it to the ECF…. Idk what Mazzulla was doing with that starting 5,” a critic mentioned on X.
It certainly was an intriguing starting lineup, as Mazzulla went with his starters, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, but added Ron Harper Jr., Balyor Scheierman, and Luke Garza. Payton Pritchard continued in his reserve role.
Perhaps Mazzulla thought switching things up and throwing a different lineup at the Philadelphia 76ers would confuse them, but that certainly didn’t work out. At times, Philly held double-digit leads, with one as large as 18 points.
To the Celtics’ credit, they kept fighting, though, and Jaylen Brown did a lot in showing how much of a star player he is. Brown finished with 33 points, nine rebounds, and six assists.
Without Tatum, the Celtics lacked the additional star they needed to help Brown contend with Philly’s star power, with all its major players available. However, terrible three-point shooting has really plagued this Boston team in these recent losses, and Mazzulla is still fine relying on that as his strategy.
His record in four years as Celtics coach is 238-90 with a championship in 2024 when he had Tatum and Brown healthy. Mazzulla’s teams had playoff exits ahead of the NBA Finals in his other three seasons.
Some could say that the past two seasons, Tatum’s injury situation played a part. Still, Mazzula’s squad had several chances to put this 76ers team away before it even got to Game 7, and one has to wonder whether coaching played a significant role in how things unraveled.
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