The final possession of the Celtics in their humiliating defeat to the Nuggets was described by Joe Mazzulla and Jayson Tatum.
The Boston Celtics lost to the Denver Nuggets 102-100, ending their home-winning streak. They haven’t lost a regular season game at TD Garden since last March, and they reached 20-0 this season. In a back-and-forth defensive struggle against the reigning champions, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray played like the world-class duo they were in the previous NBA Finals. It was an exciting game.
Despite having about 60 points from Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics were outrebounded by Denver by almost double the amount. With his 34 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists on 14–22 shooting, Jokic was in full force. Tatum sloppily took the ball in transition, almost losing it against three Nuggets, after Boston got a stop on an Aaron Gordon corner triple that went straight into his hands.
His inverted layup effortlessly rolled off the hoop. Tatum missed his signature fade-away to seal the victory with seconds remaining as the Celtics eventually regained possession of the ball in a wild conclusion. After the game, Joe Mazzulla was questioned about the possession for which he had to use both of the team’s last timeouts.
Mazzulla remarked, “Well, they had a foul to give.” Because I didn’t know when they would use their foul to give, I was making sure that we just got the shot and the set that we wanted. They were about to use their foul to give after I got JB in his spot and felt he did a good job kicking it out, but I decided to call a timeout. then simply moved JT to his position and attempted to make a play.” The question then centered on Mazzulla’s missed layup in transition by Tatum. “The best player had the ball and the opportunity, and he just missed the layup, whether it was on two or three players.
The thing is, you kind of have to trust your best player to make a play, and he didn’t.” Tatum evaluated the game’s conclusion as well. “Yeah, I think I kind of rushed it,” he replied. And I’m responsible for that. I had doubts in the back of my mind about whether they would foul. They needed to give a foul. I gave myself too little time; I had more. I ought to have taken my time, then.
You can’t go back, though. I can therefore draw lessons from it.” The Boston Celtics will now travel to Texas for a back-to-back series against the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets. “We don’t lose a lot, so when we do lose, it feels worse than it is,” Tatum stated. However, this is still only one game. We had a really strong opponent today, so [expletive] occurs. Only need to prepare for the upcoming one.”
