The Boston Celtics had a chance to escape their worst nightmare in match 2 against the New York Knicks. It did not work, and more than a few people had the same question.
Why didn't Joe Mazzulla use his latest dead time?
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With 12.7 seconds to play, the Celtics fell the 91-90 ball after a pair of free throws from Jalen Brunson. Rather than stopping playing and advancing the ball, Boston's head coach allowed his team to play, which led to an unfortunate journey by Jayson Tatum and a game of playing Mikal Bridges.
The NBA head coaches often call an expiration time in these situations so that they can write an inbound game and not have to worry about moving the ball from the opposite end. However, Mazzulla had a solid explanation after the match:
“There was one left (dead time), I did well in the same game 20 seconds earlier. I tried to do exactly the same thing, they did a better job of their lower pickup point and we could not get the advantage that we had on the last dunk of Tatum. Good short Full short, they were underlying (Karl-Anthony) Towns, could not be able to over there.”
Basically, Mazzulla did not want to allow the Knicks to underestimate Brunson, a superlative offensive player who was never known for his defense, and he thought that the Celtics had made it enough the last time that they executed the game they ended up using.
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As Mazzulla noted, Boston obtained two of his easiest points from the match when Tatum took the ball on the previous possession and directed it from one ocean to another for a fire.
Of course, it should not be too important that a defense of Tom Thibodeau is better prepared for a game executed on a second consecutive possession. Sometimes the training of the playoffs is to go with your instinct and Mazzulla wrongly bad on Wednesday.
The Celtics 0-2 trail in its semi-final series of the Eastern Conference, which is now heading for New York for two games in front of a hostile crowd from the Madison Square garden. Any hope of their own return and a second consecutive title depends on the take at least one, and preferably both, on these games.
