Quite a few fans of the Boston Celtics were thinking the same thing as Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson when the dust settled on the Celtics’ Game 4 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I thought Celtics’ head coach (Joe) Mazzulla made a mistake not calling a timeout and setting up a play in the final seconds,” Johnson wrote on social media.
Buy Celtics TicketsThe players on Boston’s roster seemed to feel otherwise.
“We’ve been doing it all year,” Al Horford told the media via MassLive’s Brian Robb. “We feel confident in that and I felt like that was the right thing. The momentum was there. Jayson had the ball in his hands making a great play. And if Smart would have caught it half a second earlier, it would have been down.”
“I’m not getting too hung up on that play,” he added.
Do the Boston Celtics have the mental toughness to win it all? https://t.co/zRRjPveOgL
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 8, 2023
“I’m sure you guys know if you call a timeout, they’ve got a chance to set up their defense,” Jayson Tatum said. “Sometimes when you do call a timeout. There’s times you feel confident that you’re going to get a good shot. You’ve just got to trust in the guys on the floor are going to make the right plays. I should have passed it probably a second earlier.”
There is a world where both Magic, Tatum and Horford are all right. The former Duke standout ought to have been (and should continue to) getting into his actions faster, but Mazzulla should have called a timeout once it was clear he was not going to do so.
Live, learn and avoid elimination.
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