Defensive Error DOSOM short -handed celtics in late loss to rockets

Boston-Joe Mazzulla accused herself of each of Boston Celtics’ two defensive collapse in crunch time Monday night. Luke Kornet attached the first mistake of itself. Jaylen Brown, also involved in the second error, detailed several factors that combined to allow Amen Thompson to score a game -winning basket shortly before the last sum. The one who deserved the cobblestone of the responsibility paired by failures sentenced Boston to a 114-112 loss to Houston Rockets.

“We just have to be better as a group, more organized in the fourth quarter down the stretch,” Brown said.

Celtics agreed on that part.

After Brown bundled the scoring of two tossed with 11.8 seconds left, they fell back within two seconds after allowing the Alperen Sengun a light path to the basket of the subsequent incoming game.

Jayson Tatum withdrew Boston in another band with a strong move against Thompson, but Boston, after delivering a mistake to give with 4.3 seconds left, seemed unprepared to defend Rockets’ last inbound game. The grain and brown tried to change, but seemed to hesitate. Their short moment of indecision left Brown in a compromised position against Thompson who exploited by driving for an eight-foot that ended the game.

After sniffing out what Houston would do, Brown said Celtics would change matchups, so he, not the grain, would defend Thompson. But with the rockets that invited the ball quickly, Brown crushed and the grain in contact. When Brown was fully obliged to take Thompson, he was a little out of position instead of square up to the young rocket wing. Forced to crawl into a closeout, Brown failed to prevent Thompson from ensuring enough separation to create an open look inside the paint.

“After we saw what they were in, we knew they would probably try to get an ISO,” Brown said. “They tried to go to Luke. So I assume I should have sniffed it out earlier. But we tried to communicate the shift to get Luke out of Thompson because he had it going and they would go to him and the timing was misunderstood and they scored at the end. “

The grain said that Celtics often before changing an action like the one to rely in a better situation. In this spectacle, Brown said the team would “get Luke out of there,” so Thompson, who ended with a career mound 33 points, couldn’t target 7-foot-1 grain out of the jump. It would probably have been the right step, but Celtics did not do it properly.

“It was just the kind of time for it all,” the grain said. “We obviously tried to change. I think we may have just been like … the ball that was handed over and sowing and then kind of other guess it at the same time because we are trying to get in position. Yes, I mean, it just didn’t play in a great way. It’s a little hard to say exactly (what went wrong), I mean, just with the time to try to make it happen. I think it was a good move to try to get it started, but just kind of game in an unfortunate way. “

Mazzulla said he was to blame for mix-up. Although he said he just wanted to “get the best possible people on the play for us to defend (that action) with only five seconds left,” he said he communicated matchups too late.

“And that put our guys in a hard place,” Mazzulla said. “Our guys played well for 48 minutes, or 47 minutes and 30 seconds, and I didn’t help them close it at the end. So I have to be better. “

Before entering the Celtics tunnel after the game, Brown stopped for a quick conversation with assistant coach Tony Dobbins. The two men seemed to discuss the confusion of the final possession.

After a little more time to digest what happened, Brown said Celtics should have just stayed with their first matchups. Still he saw the rationale of trying to change before the beginning of Houston’s possession.

“We should probably have stayed,” Brown said. “But if you can sniff it early to see what they are running because you see how they got up, then you try to get one of your better defenders in an action. So that’s what we tried to do there. It happens and it cost us at the end. “

Celtics gave up an even lighter basket on the previous Houston possession as the grain let Sengun cut directly to the edge of an open thump.

Although Mazzulla also tried to determine that mistake on his coaching, the grain said he put himself in a bad position on the play. He said he “kind of gave (Sengun) a course to the basket and he obviously took it.”

“I should have been just getting rid of (forcing the rockets) to take it out again,” the grain said, indicating that he should have used Celtics’ last mistake to give.

Notwithstanding what accusations of the players tried to take, Mazzulla didn’t have it.

“No, no, no, the last two plays were on me,” Mazzulla said. “That was my fault. I didn’t sit in the best matchups. I saw the play as they tried to run. I tried to change matchups. They put our guys in a hard place. So it’s tough because I thought our guys did everything to win the game and they enabled us to win it and I didn’t help them at the end. So both of these plays, 100 percent on me. “

Celtics deals with short -handed problems

When it’s healthy, Celtics has as much scoring power as any team in the league. But Monday night, with several important absence in an already difficult matchup, they encountered the distance problems that many clubs face. As talented as they are in most positions, a lack of wing depth is their biggest schedule in the best times. With late scratching Al Horford, who came to Sam Hauser and Derrick White on the sidelines, Celtics had to play without three of their best shooting games. Kristaps Porziņģis’ Early Poor Problems Only Limited Mazzulla’s set -up options further.

It would be easy to blame the coach for trying Neemiah Queta and Xavier Tillman together in the first quarter – and maybe, considering how difficult the score was for these groups, Mazzulla should have tried something other. Still, in addition to Payton Pritchard, who drilled his first five 3-Pointers before missing a 60-foot Heave on the last buzzer, it’s not like the other bench players, Mazzulla urged to offer much more shooting than even queta and tillman .

Rockets gladly ignored Jaden jumps during his short time on the field and did not seem threatened by Jordan Walsh. When Mazzulla used two-way contract player, Peterson drew in the second half instead of returning to Tillman, Peterson Scoreless went over three minutes and missed his only 3-point attempt. Mazzulla could have dusted Rookie Baylor Scheierman, but it would have been a tough task for him in such a high game.

So Celtics dealt with the narrow court. They worked with their imperfect lineups. They drove their start five, which dominated their first half minute together, leaving Jayson Tatum on the field throughout the other half.

Brown punished Rockets’ smallest defenders, including Fred Vanvleet and Jalen Green, early. Tatum did not score during the first half, but took over during the third quarter. When it is not limited by bad problems, Porziņģis Houston defended from the inside out. After a violent put-back dunk, he earned a technical mistake to stab Dillon Brooks. Immediately after the call, Porziņģis turned to the crowd and lifted his arms in the air like a white roller from “Game of Thrones.” With that gesture he turned the volume of the arena up.

Celtics and Rockets brought competitiveness to each other. Brooks barked on the crowd several times while putting a career high with 10 made 3-Pointers. Brown Woofed back on Brooks after drilling a transition 3-pointer. Horford, who didn’t even play, went straight against a judge to argue for an offensive error in a timeout.

Celtics appeared in full control after waving ahead with 12 points early in the fourth quarter, but six straight empty belongings after it allowed Rockets to take the lead.

Thompson hurt Boston at both ends during the fourth. Brooks’s race of 3-Pointer’s stunned Brown and Tatum. And Celtics, with two chances of at least forcing overtime, couldn’t take care of the details to secure one last stop.

After almost drawing what would have been a big win, considering their list of their list, they lost for the seventh time this season after led at least 10 points.

“We have to be better down to the stretch and perform,” Brown said. “Tonight it wasn’t the best example of that, so something we have to look at with certainty.”

(Photo of Amen Thompson, who runs to the curve towards Jaylen Brown in the final seconds of Monday’s Games: David Butler II / Imag images)