The Celtics led by 22 after Payton Pritchard tossed an alley-oop to Luke Kornet and a pair of put-back buckets to seize what should’ve been an insurmountable lead. Boston hadn’t blown a lead that large in the fourth quarter in 10 years, and doing so to bookend an 11-game win streak gives the team some leeway on what could’ve marked a panic button loss in a different context. The Celtics looked tired as the Cavaliers poured on 8-of-11 three point shooting while Boston literally missed every jump shot in the final frame — 0-for-14 outside of a Kristaps Porzingis push shot.
Cleveland, after emerging as the east’s second-best team since 2024 began, showed both perseverance in winning 105-104 and their defensive might. The Cavaliers stayed attached to the Celtics, navigated screens effortlessly and plugged Georges Niang in the lane away from Kornet to disrupt Boston’s rim reads. It both disrupted Jayson Tatum, showing him two sometimes, switching and playing Jarrett Allen up to prevent comfortable pull-ups.
Dean Wade hit five threes, an obvious anomaly, but that’s not the story. The Celtics collectively took a deep breath, committed some careless turnovers, didn’t box out on a critical possession then tried to drain out the clock on the game before Jayson Tatum committed an offensive foul down one with no time left. It again called into question the team’s late game execution, poise and pace — Joe Mazzulla admitted playing too slow after.
Other notes from the collapse…
- The Cavaliers comeback seemed to creep up on the Celtics. Cleveland went on a 16-4 run to cut the lead to 10 while Boston shot 2-for-8, part of a larger 4-for-14 lull with a pair of turnovers. All that happened before Mazzulla returned Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Porzingis to the game. The Celtics shot 1-for-6 over the ensuing minutes before Jrue Holiday found a clean look at the basket cutting away from Porzingis. By contrast, Brown returned with 9:21 remaining in a similarly close game against the Knicks.
- In crunch time — the Celtics generated the following: a long Porzingis pick-and-pop miss ahead by nine, a Tatum pick-and-pop three miss up six, Porzingis’ tough post finish, a spinning White miss attacking Darius Garland and Niang’s veer and a Jrue Holiday pick-and-pop three miss against a late switch. Tatum missed a short post fadeaway over Allen’s switch, Holiday beat Caris LeVert on a back cut after Allen recovered around Porzingis’ screen, Porzingis missed another pick-and-pop, hit his transition layup then Tatum committed the decisive offensive foul. That’s a 3-for-10 finish for the offense with Brown taking 0 shots for the entire 5:14 finish.
- Boston is now 18-9 in clutch finishes (+20 per 100), but Chris Forsberg noted more modest results as the games grow later and closer: 11-9 in the final three minutes of a one possession game, 8-8 in the final two minutes of a two-point game, 4-6 in the final minute of a one-point game and 2-5 in the final 10 seconds.
- I counted eight last-second finishes: six losses for the Celtics including Tuesday’s debacle: Tatum missed a shot down two against Denver in January at the buzzer, Brown missed a baseline jumper down two at Indiana that month in a controversial finish, Tatum tied the game after trailing big against Detroit in December before missing the game-winner, Boston going on to win in overtime. Tatum missed a long two against the Warriors before Boston lost in overtime that month. He held the ball in the corner then tossed to Sam Hauser for an air ball in the November overtime loss to Charlotte. Porzingis missed a wide open three at the buzzer in Philadelphia that month trailing by three. Brown spotted up for three before the buzzer in a tie game at Minnesota in an eventual overtime loss. It’s been all Tatum since November.
- The timeout thing doesn’t bother me, but from Mazzulla’s perspective, why shift from your mindset of not taking one when the Cavs pulled within three with 4:18 remaining? I know the four he had in his pocket to that point would’ve expired shortly after that, but Cleveland had clearly threatened prior. Like with his timeout attempt with 4.6 remaining during Tatum’s final possession, it came way too late. The same thing nearly happened in that last Denver game — Mazzulla barely got one in before Denver took a foul as Holiday over-dribbled at the three-point line.
- Wade’s three-point shooting and the Cavaliers’ comeback clearly isn’t anything to worry about. The Celtics fell asleep away from him at times, but the defense’s strength has been hedging away from weak offensive links in recent years. It’s the finishing stretch, the obsession over the final call after by Tatum, Brown’s statement about a mentality loss and his overall lack of involvement late in the game while Mazzulla mostly watched the meltdown happen that at least raise some red flags about a similar situation happening in the playoffs. This team is going to create far more blowouts than last year’s did, able to win more ways and put the closer ones away in crunch time technically (final 5 min., 5pt game), but before the final minutes and shot. The one loss that gets away could be the difference between a sweep, five game and six game series, and those building up before the east finals clearly impacted the Celtics, who fell behind 0-3 there last May.
- Before the final five minutes, Kornet and Horford reunited with Porzingis healthy, getting outscored by Cleveland by 52.6 points per 100 possessions over 10 minutes and falling to +0.7 for the season. It’s not a strength as a combination, the Cavs mostly ignoring both on defense, and while this time of year calls for rest and experimentation that Mazzulla has engaged in to some degree over the last week, a Xavier Tillman Sr. combination with Horford has looked more fruitful. Tillman was inactive on Tuesday after not appearing on the injury report.
- Tatum is now shooting 10-for-36 (27.8%) on last second shots to tie or take the lead over the past five seasons, including in the playoffs. That’s the most makes by any player in the NBA over that stretch and one of the more efficient splits in those situations. He’s 1-for-6 this season. Brown is 2-for-12 in recent years.