Jayson Tatum, Joe Mazzulla deserve a chunk of the blame for Celtics' collapse in Cleveland

BOSTON -- There are a number of factors that played into Tuesday night's Celtics loss to the Cavaliers. It doesn't normally fall on the shoulders of just one or two people when a team blows a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter.

But Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla should be feeling a bit of heat for the team's first loss in over a month.

They are not the only culprits for Tuesday night's disappointing collapse. You can point to the lackadaisical defense that let the Cavs go scorched earth in the fourth and hit 11 of their 15 attempts and all eight of their threes. You can blame everyone on the floor for losing Dean Wade over and over again, allowing the Cleveland forward open looks (20 points off 8-for-8 shooting in the fourth) and easy passage to the basket. Not boxing out on his put-back with 19 seconds left is just inexcusable.

You can blame the uninventive Boston offense that was just 8-for-26 over the final 12 minutes, and Mazzulla for not calling a timeout until his team's 22-point lead was cut down to three. 

The lack of timeouts from Mazzulla remains a frustrating aspect of his coaching approach. He's happy to let his team work through their issues and try to solve things on their own. But it was clear as the Cleveland run kept building and building, and the Boston lead kept dwindling, that his team could have used a bit of a mental and physical break. They didn't get that from their coach.

It all set up a chaotic final seconds of the game, in which Mazzulla once again failed to call a timeout. He instead let his team -- mainly Tatum -- dribble out the final 17 seconds after Wade's put-back gave Cleveland a 105-104 lead, something we've seen time and time again out of Tatum in a clutch situation. 

It resulted with a rushed attempt by Tatum, who drove into three Cleveland defenders before putting up a fallback jumper with 0.7 seconds left. Darius Garland was initially called for a foul on the shot, which would have sent Tatum to the charity stripe with a chance to win it, but that was overturned after review when officials deemed that a Tatum leg kick caused him to fall over after the shot -- not Garland's defense.

Instead of Tatum free throws, we got a jump ball at midcourt. Kristaps Porzingis won the tip, but Derrick White didn't have any time to put up a prayer before the buzzer sounded. 

We're left to wonder a lot about the Celtics from Tuesday night. How could they let an undermanned team essentially pants them in the fourth quarter? How could they go so cold offensively over the final nine minutes?

But mostly, we're wondering how that was the best shot that Tatum could come up with at the end of the game.

Both Tatum and Mazzulla accepted blame after the loss. Tatum admitted that he should have gone faster instead of sauntering up the floor, which Mazzulla said as well. The coach also said that he tried to call a timeout with 4.6 seconds left, but it wasn't granted amid the chaos on the floor.

Mazzulla never should have waited that long to try to call a timeout, but when he did decide to use one, he should have put on an acrobatic display to get the attention of the refs. And Tatum never should have waited that long to put up a shot, giving the Celtics little-to-no chance at a follow-up or potential put-back. 

"Down one in that situation, you try to get a couple more possessions, and we just got to get into it faster, go faster, and try to extend the game," said Mazzulla.

"I just tried to get a clean look," said Tatum, who was 1-for-9 in the fourth quarter. "In hindsight, I probably should have went a little bit earlier to give us more time and another opportunity.

"Obviously, I know how much time was on the clock," he added. "Probably should have went a little faster, just in case some [stuff] like that happened. Maybe we'd have more time, or maybe another opportunity."

We've seen Tatum hit his share of game-winners. We'll never forget his game-winning layup against the Nets in Game 1, and Philly will never forget his step-back three against the 76ers last season. The Bucks and the Knicks have also felt his late-game wrath during Tatum's career.

We've also seen him miss his share, much like the step-back that didn't fall in a 102-100 loss to the Nuggets earlier this season. And when he misses those, it's usually after a whole lot of holding onto the ball and dribbling to nowhere in particular. 

For whatever reason, that seems to be Boston's default when trailing in the final seconds. It's like Tatum and Mazzulla forget that there are other guys on the team. Jaylen Brown didn't attempt a shot in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, Jrue Holiday had just three, and Derrick White (who was just 1-for-5 on the night) took only one shot in the final frame.

It's infuriating that Mazzulla, who has been given credit recently for his ATO plays this season, didn't feel the need to draw up anything at the end of Tuesday's game and just let Tatum do what he wanted. 

The Celtics have been pretty good in clutch situations -- the final five minutes of a game within five points -- this season, touting an 18-9 record and the third-best win percentage in such instances. But Tatum is hitting just 32.6 percent (15-for-46) of his shots in the clutch this season, while Brown (16-for-32), White (14-for-26) , and Porzingis (16-for-23) are at or above 50 percent in those scenarios.

Clutch shots are not easy to hit, especially for star players who see two or three defenders on them in those situations. But Tatum chose to drive into a wall of Cavaliers on Tuesday, and he did so with very little time for his teammates to do anything else but hope his shot went in. Turning four of the five players on the floor into spectators is not a good strategy.

There is a lot of blame to divvy up for Tuesday night's loss, and the hope is that the Celtics use this as a valuable learning experience as what not to do when trying to hang on to a 22-point lead against an inferior opponent.

Maybe next time the Celtics are in a gotta-have-it situation, Mazzulla will actually use a timeout to draw up a play, and that play won't simply be to let Tatum dribble out the clock before taking a tough shot.