The Boston Celtics scored twice in the final 11 seconds of Monday's thriller against the Houston Rockets at TD Garden. But their defense couldn't hold up its end of the bargain.
Houston got wide-open shots on two consecutive possessions in the closing seconds: an Alperen Sengun dunk after a blown defensive coverage by Boston and an Amen Thompson floater with 0.7 seconds remaining that was the dagger in Boston's 114-112 loss. (Check out the final sequence below.)
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Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla took full accountability for Boston's defensive miscues on the final two possessions.
"They start with me," Mazzulla told NBC Sports Boston's Abby Chin after the game. "That's on me as a coach not having the matchups right, not putting our guys in the best situation to execute the last two plays. So that one falls on me, 100 percent."
So, what exactly did go wrong on defense on those two blown coverages? Ex-Celtics guard and 2008 NBA champion Eddie House believed Mazzulla's plan on the Thompson game-winner was to have Jaylen Brown initially guard Jalen Green and Luke Kornet guard Amen Thompson, then have Brown switch onto Thompson to get their preferred matchup.
"I think (Mazzulla) was trying to think ahead of the other team," House said on NBC Sports Boston's Celtics Postgame Live, as seen in the video player above. "And knowing that we were gonna be switching, putting Luke in a position to where Jalen Green was gonna be coming off of the dribble hand-off with Thompson and Jaylen could switch to him.
"There was confusion, because it's all split-second decisions. And if you're on the sideline yelling that while the ref is getting ready to (resume play) and I'm already guarding you, and now I've got to run (to switch), and now we're pointing fingers. You can see that on that last play."
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Brown and Kornet appeared to make their switch too late, and Thompson took advantage of Brown being on his heels to create space for the game-winning floater.
"Luke is like, 'Hey, we're gonna be switching,' (but) now you're hesitant," House added. "Jaylen Brown is just reacting now. So, just a miscommunication there. Joe basically is saying that it was his fault because he more than likely -- I don't know because I wasn't there to be able to hear what was being said -- but what it looked like, they wanted to have Luke in the switcher spot to where once it's switched, Jaylen could take Jalen Green and be in the right position.
"That was the matchup they were looking for. We just weren't matched up the right way."
As for Sengun's dunk, both Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown ran toward Thompson, while Sengun snuck past Kornet into a wide-open lane for the easy dunk.
"KP and Jaylen Brown -- there's two guys going to the ball right there, and then Luke just gets back-doored," House said. "I don't know what was going on there."
Those two plays spoiled an otherwise strong performance by the Celtics, who battled hard against that had won eight of its last 10 games. But late-game defensive lapses unfortunately have been a pattern for Boston, which ranks 26th in the NBA in defensive rating during "clutch" situations (score within five in the final five minutes).
The Celtics will look to bounce back Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden, with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.