MIAMI — The Heat followers leaving Kaseya Center have been nonetheless loud, cheering and clearly audible when Joe Mazzulla took the rostrum, which was positioned simply steps away from the courtroom, a curtain separating him from the carnage that simply came about.
The Celtics coach was nonetheless making an attempt to course of what simply occurred, a humiliating and inexcusable 128-102 loss to the Heat in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals that abruptly left his crew one loss from elimination. It was the darkest evening of the season, one as soon as crammed with a lot promise however now in actual jeopardy of crashing to a devastating finish. It appears inevitable now, actually.
But with the lights on him, Mazzulla had nowhere to go, nowhere to cover. The first-year coach put all of it on himself.
“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” Mazzulla mentioned.
Mazzulla was thrust into a really troublesome spot in September when he abruptly took cost of a championship-ready crew for the suspended Ime Udoka. He dealt with circumstances admirably via the common season. But his inexperience is being uncovered this postseason, and the highlight is burning on him now after Sunday’s horrific loss.
In the largest sport of the season – one the Celtics completely needed to win – their doorways have been blown off. They have been in it for the primary six minutes, however the 42 minutes after was their worst nightmare coming to actuality.
Mazzulla took the blame – time and again.
“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” he repeated. “I should have – whatever it was, whether it was the starting lineup or it was an adjustment, I have to get them in a better place ready to play, and that’s on me.”
“I have to be better,” he mentioned. “I’ve got to put them in better positions. I’ve got to get them ready to play. I have to have the game plan ready for us to be physical and to execute, and it’s important that we stick together.”
The Celtics confirmed little struggle after the Heat ran away with the sport within the third quarter. How disappointing was that?
“It’s on me to be better for them so that they play harder,” Mazzulla mentioned.
“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” he continued. “I just didn’t execute the proper game plan. I didn’t put them in the right mentality to be ready, and it’s my job to make sure that they’re connected and that they’re ready to play, and I didn’t do that.”
What was Jaylen Brown’s response to listening to Mazzulla didn’t have the crew prepared?
“I think it’s a collective effort,” the Celtics star mentioned.
Al Horford didn’t let his coach take all of the blame. After the Celtics fell behind by 18 within the second quarter, Horford was on the heart of the huddle, delivering an impassioned speech. But it clearly had no impact.
The 36-year-old veteran shared within the blame.
“Coach is saying that, he’s being generous,” Horford mentioned. “At the tip of the day, that falls on every participant. We know what we now have to do. We knew the magnitude of this sport.
“As a player, I take responsibility because we didn’t have what we needed to have. That’s what that is.”
Celtics gamers have stood by Mazzulla – whose interim head coach tag was eliminated in February together with a contract extension – throughout a troublesome postseason run for the coach through which he’s made a number of errors, some in essential conditions. They’ve continued to say publicly that they imagine in him, with Marcus Smart on the forefront.
But Mazzulla acknowledged Sunday that there’s a disconnect between him and the gamers. How else to elucidate what transpired on Sunday evening?
“That’s where I have to be better, figure out what this team needs to make sure that they’re connected, they’re physical and they’re together by the time we step on the floor,” Mazzulla mentioned.
What precipitated the disconnect?
“I’m not sure,” Mazzulla mentioned.
The components for Sunday’s catastrophe have been lots. The Celtics weren’t prepared, they weren’t centered, they didn’t have the mentality to win. And numerous that got here on the defensive finish. The C’s have been misplaced in transition and damaged within the half-court, the place the Heat had no drawback doing no matter they happy, whether or not it was open seems from deep or alley-oops for Bam Adebayo.
Jimmy Butler wasn’t even actually an element. He scored 16 factors. It was the position gamers – Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson – who took over.
The Celtics have been the league’s high protection a 12 months in the past and that was the explanation why they turned their season round beneath Udoka and got here two wins in need of a championship. They haven’t been almost nearly as good defensively this season even whereas rating among the many high models through the common season. They’ve proven flashes, and so they seemed like they turned a nook defensively within the 76ers sequence after holding them beneath 90 factors in three video games.
But the C’s have clearly misplaced a step on that aspect on this sequence. They haven’t been centered or detailed sufficient.
“I think some of that defensive identity has been lost, and we have to get that back, and that’s where part of that is on me to make sure we get that back,” Mazzulla mentioned.
“Just these last couple games. I think just the execution, just we’re not connected. Usually at our best, we’re connected, we’re together, we’re physical on the defensive end, and we don’t have that right now.”
Horford agreed the protection has been misplaced. As the Celtics put together for a do-or-die Game 4 on Tuesday evening, that’s the main focus.
“The most important thing is how can we get our defensive identity, how can we get just a clear understanding of what it looks like on the offensive end and just keep it as simple as we can so that we’re connected and we’re physical, that we play with the right mindset and we play together,” Mazzulla mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com