The Celtics looked like a team destined for a loss Friday night early in the fourth quarter after they fell behind by 12 points against the Magic. Boston mustered a putrid 15 points in the first 17 minutes of the second half thanks to a host of turnovers and suffocating Magic defense.
Suddenly, the team found live though as the game approached crunch time. Boston went on a 17-5 run to the tie the game up at 91-91 with 2:31 remaining after a Derrick White transition layup. From there, Boston was outscored 4-2 by the Magic, falling short of a comeback in a 95-93 loss.
There were a host of factors that led to Boston’s first postseason defeat in 2025. Jrue Holiday’s absence certainly didn’t help on a night Boston’s offensive supporting cast couldn’t get much going. Countless turnovers by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown hurt. Boston’s bench was largely a no show outside of some solid minutes from Luke Kornet. Kristaps Porzingis was awful by his own accord.
Despite those realities, the Celtics were very much in position to win this game or at the very least force overtime. Yet, on a night Boston was shorthanded, Joe Mazzulla made a few tough choices that ended up proving costly for the visitors in crunch time.
Where was Jaylen Brown in crunch time?
The Celtics All-Star picked up his fifth foul with 4:07 remaining in the fourth quarter and was promptly subbed out of the game for Kristaps Porzingis. He did not re-enter the game until there were 48 seconds remaining. Mazzulla had multiple chances to bring him back in the game after timeouts by both teams before the three minute mark. However, he passed on those chances, leaving his All-Star on the bench until 48 seconds were remaining and the Celtics trailing by four points.
“I mean, he had five fouls, so we waited until the best possible moment to get him in,” Mazzulla said of the timing.
Brown didn’t have his best night by any means (six turnovers) but he was still playing miles better than Kristaps Porzingis all night long, particularly on the offensive end. With Boston’s offense sputtering all night, Mazzulla needed to get his second-best scorer in the game in crunch time.
He had the ability to do so early but was clearly being conservative with Brown’s foul trouble. With two timeouts in his pocket in the final two minutes there was ample opportunity to get him in the game with Porzingis struggling on defense. Mazzulla loves to keep his timeouts for late but this was an instance where the value of getting Brown into the game was more important than preserving the timeout. Particularly when it came to the player who needed to be taken out.
Kristaps Porzingis should not have been on the floor in crunch time
Porzingis was the worst player for the Celtics on Friday night (minus-16) yet Mazzulla kept him in the game when push came to shove over Brown. This was a very costly miscue, since the Magic had a target on his back by getting him into isolation situations with Franz Wagner. The Magic forward burned Porzingis for two layups in the final two minutes after the Celtics tied up the game, squandering their best chances at pulling off the comeback.
At that stage of the game, Brown or even Luke Kornet would have been a better choice than Porzingis on this particular night. That’s especially true when considering Porzingis was giving Boston nothing offensively all night (3-of-10 from field, 0-of-3 from 3-point range). This has been a rough series for the big man and Mazzulla can’t be giving him minutes he hasn’t earned in key situations when he’s a liability on defense.
Late game management
The challenge in the last minute was a brutal loss since not only did it cost Boston a timeout, but it gave the Wolves the ball rather than accepting a jump ball situation. Given the swing in play in that spot with 48 seconds remaining in a four-point game, any challenge there has to be done with certainty, since losing a timeout in that spot was particularly damaging. The Celtics are usually great with their challenges, but this was a crucial miscalculation in a big spot.
“Two timeouts, and you’re looking to try to get a 2-for-1 in a possession game,” Mazzulla said. “It looked like – it didn’t look like he had touched it yet, and it looked like it was off Carter. So we were just trying to get that extra possession there.”
Having just one timeout late likely led to one more costly choice by the Celtics, not fouling with a three second differential on Orlando’s final possession. The Celtics could have fouled far earlier, hoped for some free throw misses, and at least extended the game. Instead, they got just 0.3 seconds to try to tie the game after taking three seconds to secure a late rebound.
“It’s just a long rebound that went out to half court,” Mazzulla said. “We get that rebound at the free throw line – it was great defense, and you don’t expect the rebound to go all the way out to half court. So if we catch it two bounces earlier, we have plenty of time on there. So it was right at the point where we’re deciding on what we were doing there, and it was just an unlucky bounce off the rim, and it went out to halfcourt instead of getting it around the free throw line.”
Given that the Magic had grabbed nearly 40 percent of all available offensive rebounds on Friday night, this was a questionable bet. Orlando has some iffy free throw shooters (Wagner is 71 percent) and they haven’t shot great all series long from the stripe. Extending the game may have been the better play.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, this loss won’t matter much for Boston assuming they take care of business in Game 4. However, as tough lineup and timeout decisions pop up in the weeks to come for Boston, Game 3 wasn’t Mazzulla’s best showing.
