Ime Udoka could savor his victory on the prosecution of his former team. Thanks to a Dillon Brooks In Stephen Curry mode, at 10/15 behind the 3-point line, and a decisive shoot ofAmen Thompsonthe Rockets thus offer the reigning champions on their parquet, and confirm their very beautiful current form!
On the Celtics side, one could (once again) ruminate the management of the “money-time”, and in particular the last two attacks of Houston, concluded by baskets of Alperen Sengun and therefore Amen Thompson…
Boston thinks too much and gets trapped!
On the first delivery, 11 seconds from the end, the Rockets are launching their system too early. You still have to give back into play and Alperen Sengun, defended by Luke Kornet, finally defeated his opposite to go directly to the circle. Fred Vanvleet serves him and Houston returns to the lead (112-110).
Behind, Jayson Tatum goes to the circle (112-112) and Houston five seconds to win. This is where Boston will particularly get confused. As the Celtics still have a fault to give, Luke Kornet is first on the parquet floor. He commits the fault to grab the clock for a second and Joe Mazzulla wants to bring Kristaps Porzingis, which he had protected on the previous action because of his five faults, in his place. Except that it is too late and Luke Kornet must therefore defend on the final opposing attack.
The rest? Jaylen Brown tries to anticipate the rocket system, asking his pivot to change to take care of Amen Thompson. Except that it occurs a little too late, and it is late when the sophomor is served.
“While we had somehow seen what they wanted, we knew they were probably going to do insulation” explains the MVP of the last finals. “They were going to attack Luke. I should have spotted it earlier. We tried to talk to change and that Luke was no longer on Thompson because they were hot, and they were going to serve him. But the timing was not good, and they ended up scoring in the end. »»
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iUCQBYOHPM
While the Celtics were lost in the management of defensive faults and duels according to what they anticipated, the Rockets were going straight to the point, taking advantage of the openings generated by the opposing hesitations.
“It was the timing that posed a problem. We were trying to change our duels ” describes Luke Kornet. “We would have done better to let the restoration get used to it but we hesitated, because we wanted to be in place. It didn't work well. It's hard to point the finger at exactly what did not work. Overall, it is a concern with the general timing of the sequence. I think it was the right thing to do, but the result is unhappy. »»
Joe Mazzulla too stubborn?
The pivot also regretted not having failed in the previous possession, to prevent the Alperen Sangun basket, while Boston still had a fault to give at that time.
But for Joe Mazzulla, it is only his fault if the Celtics flouted in the last minute.
“No, no, no, the last two actions are for me. They are totally my fault. I have not set up the best duels. I saw the system they wanted to set up. I tried to change the “matchups”. They put our guys in difficult positions. It's hard, because I think our guys did everything we needed to win this match, they put us in a position to win, and I did not help them at the end. On these last two actions, this is my 100% fault ” concludes the coach.
But in Boston, it is not only the last minute that worries the observers. Because while Udoka loves the defensive changes to disturb Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Joe Mazzulla held all evening to a very clear game plan: neutralize the contribution of Fred Vanvleet, Jalen Green and Alperen Sangun.
It worked rather well, except that it also released a lot of space for Amen Thompson and especially Dillon Brooks, who was clearly not a priority for the defenders of Celtics …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukwnrezjes
Has the Massachusetts coach was trapped by his analytical approach, his tendency to focus on opposing stars and especially his stubbornness to apply a predefined game plan? In any case, this is not the first time this season that Celtics have been punished by the opposing “role players”. It has even become recurrent.
