Mazzulla calls out key mistake after Celtics’ ‘lucky’ win in Memphis originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics just won their sixth consecutive game, beating the Memphis Grizzlies on the road to improve to an NBA-best 11-2.
That’s the positive spin on Sunday night. The more pessimistic view is that the Celtics almost lost to a 3-9 Grizzlies team decimated by injuries and made several uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the game.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla opted for the pessimistic view.
“We got lucky to win that game,” Mazzulla said after Boston’s 102-100 victory at FedExForum. “We talk about it a lot … you learn from losses and you can learn from wins. Sometimes you’re OK with a loss because you did the right things, and sometimes you’re pissed because you didn’t deserve to win. And I didn’t think we deserved to win the game because a lot of the stuff that we did.”
Mazzulla’s Celtics tied a season high with 17 turnovers and attempted a season-low 31 3-pointers, making just 12 (38.7 percent). Memphis out-hustled Boston by racking up 21 second-chance points to the Celtics’ 12, and grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to the C’s nine.
But the Celtics also made mistakes that didn’t show up on the stat sheet — most notably Jrue Holiday’s missed dunk with nine seconds remaining.
After Derrick White corralled an offensive rebound and flipped it to Jayson Tatum with 14 seconds left and Boston up by two, the Celtics just needed to hold the ball and wait for the Grizzlies to foul. Instead, Tatum passed to Holiday, who blew the dunk and set up Memphis’ Santi Aldama — who had scored 28 points and hit six 3-pointers on the night — for a wide-open 3-point attempt that would have given his team the lead.
Aldama’s shot rimmed out, and Kristaps Porzingis saved the day by blocking Ziaire Williams’ buzzer-beating attempt. But Mazzulla didn’t let Holiday off the hook.
“At the end of the game there, you either have to make the layup or you have to get fouled. That’s just how it is,” Mazzulla said of Holiday’s mistake. “You either have to make it or you dribble the clock out and get fouled and you make your free throws, and the game’s over.
“Credit to the Grizzlies for the way they played. I thought they just outplayed us at times.”
That’s now back-to-back subpar efforts for the Celtics: After escaping Toronto with a 108-105 win over the Raptors on Friday night, Mazzulla admitted it was the “first time all year where we weren’t the best version of ourselves.”
The good news? Boston found a way to win both games, and now boasts a 5-2 record in “clutch” games (score within five in the final five minutes) with a 35.1 net rating, second in the NBA behind the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Celtics are right back in action Monday night against LaMelo Ball and the Hornets in Charlotte, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. ET.
