The Way The Celtics Lost Game 4 Was Yet Another Example Of How Thin The Margin For Error Is In The Playoffs

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

Just a horrific night's sleep for your truly. Tossing and turning every 5 seconds, every time I closed my eyes I would see a combination of Jaylen Brown helping double leaving the strong side corner three open, Tatum waiting 50,000 years to make an offensive move, and these tweets

And yet, here we are. Two brutal losses coming via the hand of James Harden, and a series that you could argue should be over or with the Celts up 3-1, is now anyone's series. On one hand, after dropping the opener it became clear that the goal of this trip was to steal one and regain homecourt advantage. 

That happened.

That's the good news. But given how close they were to taking a commanding 3-1 lead, the fact that the Celts didn't take both games is what has most people rather annoyed right now. Probably because as we so often see, this result was due in large part to their own self inflicted wounds. All that great fight in the second half and in the fourth quarter was ultimately undone through some terrible costly mistakes via the most important players on the roster. At the end of the day, winning playoff games is about execution. When the Celts needed to execute and put Game 4 away, they came up short. Not just once, but multiple times.

This is not me saying I expect the Celts to go 16-0 in the playoffs, that's not realistic. The playoffs are hard and filled with good teams. What I am saying is I expect that when this team finds themselves in a position to win these games, they find a way to do it. We just saw it happen in Game 3. That was close in the end, and the Celts executed on both ends to secure the win.

Games 1 & 4 were the exact opposite. In my opinion, Game 4 stings more given what it meant for the series and the fact that you definitely played well enough offensively to win on the road. The more you allow teams to hang around, the more you allow the chance for things to get wonky. In a sense, the Celts are playing with their food, which tends to not always end well.

As we know, when the Celts lose they can't ever just get blown out or anything like that. Those would be tough, but easier to stomach I think. Sometimes it's just not your day. But no, of the Celts 4 playoff losses so far, 3 of them have come on "game winners", where they had a late lead with under 30 seconds to go in ALL of them. That's unreal. But it just goes to show, you have to play a full 48. You have to execute on both ends of the floor until the final buzzer because one mistake can not only lose you the game, it could potentially fuck up your entire season.

We now move to a best of 3, with 2 games in the Garden. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe it isn't given how inconsistent the Celts have been at home, but you could make the case that Game 5 is the series. Should it have even come to this? Maybe not, but this is the bed the Celts have made for themselves so it's up to them to navigate themselves out of it.

We have a lot to get through, so let's dive in.

The Good

- Make no mistake, Jayson Tatum's first half of basketball was some of the worst we're ever seen in playoff history. That's not me exaggerating, that's the truth. His 1-9 in the first half was something we've only seen a handful of times

There's no denying that it put the Celts in an early hole. But as bad as he was in the first 24, that's how awesome Tatum was in the final 23:53 seconds

At the half, Tatum had 2/9/2 with 2 blocks. For him to finish with 24/18/6/4 and go 6-8 from the floor in the 2nd half and 2-3 in OT, so a combined 8-11, is how the Celts were even in a position to win this game in the first place. Often times when we see Tatum have that early stinker, it turns into a 48 minute stinker. Last night he dug his way out and nearly carried this team to a win. That's a positive for sure. He didn't hide behind his slow shooting start and punt the game. He made his impact in other ways, got aggressive in the second half and everything started flowing as a result.

Tatum didn't have a turnover in the entire second half (2 total), and while a majority of the focus will be on his ending, I think a couple things are true at the same time.1

1. The Celts aren't even in a position to win this game without Tatum's performance in the second half

2. His decision making on the final possession proved to be extremely costly, and something that looks like it continues to be a repeated mistake

Remember, this is the same guy who made the big shots in the final 2 minutes of Game 3. Those went in, last night's didn't go his way. That shit happens. 

- Everything I just said about Jayson is also true when it comes to Jaylen. Overall, Jaylen was really good in this game

It was Jaylen who once again got everything started early with his 12 points on 5-7 shooting in the first quarter, and for him to finish with 23/3/5 with just 1 TO on 10-16 (3-8) and a team best +5 is more than enough to win on most nights. 

Just like with Jayson though, two things are true

1. Jaylen absolutely filled his role and carried this team during the times Tatum was struggling

2. Jaylen's mistake in the final moments proved to be very costly, and continues to be a repeated mistake

It sucks that two guys who both had more than solid overall performances were ultimately done in by each guy making a killer mistake in the biggest moments. As the franchise guys, that's tough to stomach. 

- Maybe the most frustrating part of last night was the fact that the Celts wasted an incredible defensive performance from Al Horford on Joel Embiid. He held Embiid to just 7-17 shooting overall, had 4 blocks, and in the fourth quarter Embiid did nothing, finishing just 1-6. Al was everywhere in that second half defensively

so to waste a performance like that hurts. It's not often you see Embiid held in check like that, so when you finally get it you HAVE to capitalize and make the Sixers pay for it. The Celts didn't, and now it's as if it never happened. Couldn't mean less. That's very fucking annoying.

- For the 4th straight game, the Celts had very few offensive issues. Even with a brutal 1st quarter, the Celts still scored 115 points. They still shot 47/38% from the floor with 17 3PM. They finished with 25 AST and only 10 TOs, and the rebounding battle was tied at 44. They dominated fastbreak points 22-9. Points in the paint were even.

The point is, offensively the Celts were more than good enough. Again. 

They have a 123 Ortg this series, which is the best in the playoff field by a wide margin (DEN is #2 at 118.6). The Celts have the #1 offense of these entire playoffs (both rounds) at 120.6. They have the #1 net rating in the playoffs as well.

It all comes back to the same thing. It doesn't matter what you do offensively, if you do not defend, you die. Period. End of discussion. 

Last night was about the inability to defend. The end of game stuff was brutal and that played a role, but the root of the issue happened way before we got to the final 2 minutes.

- In what seems to be a reoccurring theme in this game, this was a night of wasted performances. You can add both Smart and Brogdon to this list

Both of these guys helped keep the Celts afloat while Jaylen had foul trouble and Tatum was nowhere to be found. Brogdon's outside shooting has been massive these last few games which is very important given how he struggled to start the playoffs, and with Smart, he came up huge in the 4th quarter with 10 massive points to help fuel the comeback. Sucks he missed that final shot of regulation, but someone had to match Harden's 10 points in that final quarter, and Smart stepped up and did it.

It's just not very often you get that type of production from the Jays, and then the guard trio has 52 points and somehow the Celts still lose. That's partly what makes this so hard to stomach. 

The Bad

- Alright, let's get to the shit that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I want to start with something very early in the game, because it proved to be rather impactful.

Now you may be asking why I am showing a play in the first 2 minutes of a game with the score 0-2. For starters, this is just a bad decision by Marcus. I get what he was thinking, that cut has been there, but I guess he didn't see Maxey cheating into the paint. As soon as it left his hands you knew that was going to be a turnover. So that was bad.

To make things worse, it was a live ball turnover that put Philly on the break, resulting in a Jaylen Brown early foul. Maybe he fouled him, maybe he got out of the way. The point is the entire thing was avoidable had you not turned the ball over. Jaylen Brown would pick up his 2nd foul just 2 minutes later at the 8:37 mark of the first quarter.

It's safe to say that had a massive impact on what happened next. 

Jaylen came out at the 4:33 mark with the score tied 15-15. Their hottest offensive player up until that point, the Celts were in the middle of a stretch where they missed 14 of their 15 FGA. From the 7:10 mark in the first quarter until the clock hit 0.0, they scored just 5 points and the next thing you knew the score was 27-19. 

Here's where that early foul comes into play. 

At the start of the 2nd quarter, Joe put a lineup of 

Smart/Jaylen/Brogdon/Grant/Rob

on the floor. A good mix of offense and defense. The only issue was, because Jaylen had 2 fouls, he could not guard James Harden. That fell mostly on Brogdon, which did not work. From the start of the 2nd quarter until around the 7 minute mark, the Sixers scored on 7 of 8 possessions against that lineup, with Harden scoring 12 points and making 5 of the 7 FGM. That unit had a Drtg of 215.5 in their 4+ minutes together on the floor. Here was Harden's shot breakdown during that stretch in which he started to find his rhythm

So while that early TO may not have seemed like a big deal at the time, it forced Joe to have Jaylen off Harden in his 2nd quarter stint, and that helped him start to feel good. Turns out, that turnover was a VERY big deal.

- Let's now move to the 3rd quarter. Coming out of halftime, Joe had this lineup on the floor

Smart/White/Brown/Tatum/Al

No surprise, those are the starters. Well, that group allowed points on 7 of their first 8 possessions and had a Drtg of 212.5. In fact, the Celts went 7 total minutes in that 3rd quarter without forcing a single stop. From 11:16 to 4:16, the Sixers got points every single time down the floor.

After playing incredible team defense in Games 2 and 3, the Celts defense reverted back to their inability to get stops in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. After not giving up 30 point quarters in 9 straight, the Celts allowed 32 on 54/55% shooting in the 2nd and 33 on 55/66% shooting in the 3rd. You cannot win on the road in the playoffs if you cannot stop your opponent.

It didn't even matter that the Celts scored 33 points on 72/50% themselves in the 3rd quarter. Doesn't that feel familiar to Game 1? That's what I mean when I say it does not matter what you do offensively if you don't defend. The Celts picked two quarters to not defend, and it cost them the game. 

- In a tough playoff games, attention to details matter. The smallest thing can completely change a game. One thing that has plagued this team all year is late game rebounding. It hurt them during the regular season, it hurt them against the Hawks, and it has now cost the Celtics another playoff game.

The Sixers had 19 2nd chance points in this game, with 9 of them coming in the 4th quarter and OT. To make matters worse, 5 of those in the 4th quarter came in the final minute. 

There of course was the Tobias Harris airball which led to an OREB AND1

Under 30 seconds, there was the Maxey OREB after the Horford block with the Celtics up by 2

This gave the Sixers an extra possession which was followed by the Harden floater to tie it.

In OT, up 3 with just under 3 minutes to go, the Celtics had every chance in the world to secure a rebound and get on the break. Instead…

Immediately following that rebound, Joel Embiid hit a jumper to bring it to 112-111. 

These are the type of late game execution mistakes that cost you playoff games. You HAVE to rebound late. You have to. In OT, Jaylen saw that Tucker was crashing the glass and still have a pathetic box out attempt. Tatum once again went up with 1 hand instead of two, which is just fundamental basketball. This has to be a rebound

- Celts missing 6 FTA, including Tatum missing 2 in the 4th quarter in a game they lost by 1 point. That's fucking sick.

- In Game 3, Al Horford's dagger 3 went in. In Game 4, somehow it didn't drop. I still can't believe it

I still do not understand how this did not go in

This is why people say the NBA is sometimes a make or miss league. On one end, the Sixers helped off a strong side corner shooter, and Horford just missed his dagger. On the other, the Celts helped off a strong side corner shooter, and Harden made his dagger. That's how razor thin the margins are in these games when you fuck around.

- You could make the case that at the 2 minute mark timeout, Joe could have put Derrick White back in for defense. Brogdon had just made the massive 3PM to bring them up 5, but he was getting torched defensively basically all night. Joe left him in, and this immediately followed

Another example of a soft switch fucking this team up. Just like in Game 1, if the player guarding Harden can't contain him, the defense has no shot. Giving up a layup and the AND1 there from Brogdon immediately undid everything that was massive about his huge 3PM. Again, it's the small things that add up.

- A lot will be made about the ending, but let's also not forget what happened immediately following that Harden blow by layup. The Celts didn't really do anything with purpose on their next offensive possession, and that resulted in Smart having to take a contested 3PA with about 1:30 left that missed. 4 of the 5 Celtics touched the ball on that possession, everyone but Jaylen. Smart brought it up and gave it to Tatum who had Maxey posted up at about the elbow. Tobias Harris came to double, so Tatum swung it to Horford, who swung it to Brogdon, who took a dribble and did nothing, only to give it to Smart with about 7 seconds left on the shot clock. Harden hedged over which cut off the drive, and that Smart 3PA was basically the only shot available

I'll say it again. Everything comes down to execution.

The Ugly

- Let's just tell the truth. Jaylen's mental error defensively at the end of OT was the biggest mistake of the night. I've watched it time and time again and I just do not understand. I sort of compare it to Smart's bad foul on Trae Young at the end of Game 5 when he went for that steal.

The lack of situational awareness simply cannot happen.

Who gives a shit if Embiid scores here. You cannot lose if the Sixers score 2 points as long as you don't commit an AND1 foul. What can beat you is a 3PM. Even if Embiid or the Sixers score there, OK fine no big deal. Now you have the ball for the last shot in a tie game. If this felt familiar, it's because we've seen Jaylen make this same off ball defensive mistake in a huge playoff moment before

As he often does, Jaylen took full responsibility for the error

I get it, if Jaylen somehow comes up with a steal there or Harden misses that 3PA,  that decision is viewed differently. I just do not think the risk outweighs the reward in that situation. As we saw, the Celts got burned by the risk, just like in Game 5 vs ATL. 

- Then of course there was the final possession. Of course, people are mad Joe didn't call a timeout in that spot. There seems to be this idea that calling a timeout automatically equals a bucket. It's almost like people forgot about Game 1. After Harden hit that 3PM, the Celts took a timeout and didn't even get a shot off. In Game 3, there were no late timeouts and the Celts executed. 

It's not about whether or not you take a timeout.

It's about the players understanding and recognizing the situation. With 19 seconds left, you need to play faster. Joe says it, the players say it, and yet they never do it. You want to give yourself as much time as you can to get a shot and potentially an OREB or a foul. The Celtics crossed half court with 13.4 seconds left in the game

There was no real sense of urgency. After crossing halfcourt, Smart sort of stood there and dribbled for another 3-4 seconds until Tatum caught the ball with 7.8. Again, nobody is really doing anything or moving.

Tatum then holds the ball for another 3 full seconds, not making his move until 4.8 was left on the clock

By then, it was too late

The Celts got the matchup they wanted (Tatum on Maxey) and a shot they can live with (wide open 3PM). That's partly why you call a timeout right? To get a matchup and shot you want. The Celts did that without a timeout, but their issue was simply the players taking too long. Everyone from Smart at the 19-11 second mark to Tatum in the final 7.8 seconds. That's not on Joe, that's on the players. This is not the first time they've been in this situation, and it's not the first time they know they have to play faster. There's only so many times a coach can tell a team that, it's on the players to actually go out and do it.

A lack of defense and poor decision making is why the Celtics now find themselves tied 2-2 with their season potentially coming down to what happens on Tuesday. They've given the Sixers new life and in turn have made things much harder on themselves, which feels like a familiar place to be, and now their season is essentially on the line as a result.