The Boston Celtics had the perfect opportunity to put the nail in the coffin of their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, but went stumbling on their late errors and fell to a 119-117 Game 5 horrendous defeat.
The C’s were already in position to close out the series against the Hawks and advance to the Conference Semis, posting a 12-point lead heading to the final frame. But what happened on the next sequence ultimately resulted in a meltdown for the club.
This crumbling now sends the Celtics back to Atlanta for Game 6, with the series extended through Thursday.
“[We] smoked the game, but our mindset and mentality is to get ready for the next one,” Jaylen Brown said. “We’ve been in situations like this before. It’s unfortunate, but you can run and point fingers or you can take ownership of the situation. We’ve got two chances to win one, so come out and ready for the next game.”
Donning his black mask once again, Brown powered the C’s with his 35 points and seven boards in 15-of-23 shooting. But his leadership wasn’t enough to carry his squad over the gigantic comeback waves by the Hawks in crunch time.
Without the suspended Dejounte Murray, Trae Young delivered in the pivotal Game 5 as he finished with 38 points and 13 assists. He scored 14 in the final 3:18 of the fourth-quarter and sank an ice-cold long three with 1.8 seconds left to shock the TD Garden crowd.
Young’s trifecta served as the finisher of Atlanta’s herculean rally, evading season elimination in front of the title-contending club.
“Today we had a tremendous opportunity,” Brown said. “We had control of the game, for the most part, and Trae Young just put on a hell of a performance in the fourth quarter, made some big threes. The last one, of course, was a stinger. But the only thing you can say is get ready for the next one.”
Atlanta was down by 13 points in the final 6:10 of the regulation, but they went scorching for a 23-8 run for the remainder of the match. A series of fouls and turnovers ultimately cost Boston’s chances to seal the best-of-seven matchup and finally face the Philadelphia 76ers up next.
The Celtics committed four turnovers and five fouls from the said stretch, as Jayson Tatum’s technical also impacted their poise and composure.
“We had some bonehead plays, some fouls and have them some opportunities to get going,” he said. “We just got to finish the game. … We missed some shots, we just let the game get away from us a little bit and they just hit shot after shot down the line and give a team life. You leave it up to chance and that’s what we did tonight.”
Brown also pointed out some cryptic words about the team’s overall approach in the endgame.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla called a timeout when the Celtics were up 111-103 with 4:31 left. Since then, the Hawks managed to get close to them and put the victory icing via Young’s final shot.
“We pride ourselves as players [making] the right play and adjustments. At times, we leave that up to the coaches to make that decision,” he said.
“But for sure, we gotta be better overall as a team, coaching staff, and players on getting organized in those moments, whether we call timeouts or not.”
