The Hawks humbled the Celtics yet again. It’s already twice this season that the Atlanta side has defeated the defending champions in TD Garden. Tonight was an intense overtime matchup, and Trae Young & Co. held their nerve to produce a statement 119-115 win. However, there was a big drama before the game went into OT, leaving the fanbase riling up against Jrue Holiday. Amid this chaotic situation, Coach Joe Mazzulla came to his player’s rescue and instead put the blame on the rest of the star team.

Judge for yourself. With 7-odd seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Celtics held a 2-point lead and were poised to win. Trae Young drove the ball for the last possession, tightly guarded by Jrue Holiday. At one point, Young freed himself and went for a shot from the arc, but before that, the ref blew the whistle for a reach-in foul. Ice Cold Trae dropped the 2 clutch free throws and forced the OT.

Jrue Holiday pursued the refs and pleaded his case, but it didn’t lead to anything.

Instead, he triggered a wave of anger from the Boston crowd. The 2x Champ argued about the call, though, it did seem like an intentional foul. But Coach Mazzulla seemed unfazed by Holiday’s move. He had a disappointing reaction to the play during the game.

Speaking at the post-game presser, the HC pointed out a similar act from the previous season that fetched them the win and blamed the team for not executing it well tonight. “Unless it goes well, you’re always gonna second guess what it is… He made the best decision possible that he thought at the time and we just didn’t execute it. It’s one of those where it doesn’t go well, someone’s gonna be ‘should’ve done this.’ (shrugs),” JM said.

“At the end of the day, he had the intention to put us in a position to win,” clarified Joe Mazzulla at the post-game presser. Of course, it is completely against the Boston crowd’s popular opinion.

Besides Jrue Holiday’s blunder, TD Garden witnessed plenty of intense drama

It wasn’t just Jrue Holiday‘s late-game misjudgment that caused the madness, but A LOT more. Capturing it rightly, renowned NBA reporter Keith Smith wrote, “Jrue Holiday deserves a pretty big chunk of the blame, but he was far from the only guy to have issues tonight.” Moreover, Joe Mazzulla didn’t deny it either. The head coach candidly added, “When you’re in a game like this, it’s so easy to just look at those last seconds. We had a chance to win it and we didn’t execute it. That’s a fact.”

Moreover, JM pointed out how the Celtics‘ underwhelming second quarter affected the result where they only scored 15 points. Adding on it, a Celts fan brought a few more blunders to the table. The fan wrote, “Jayson sold? Jaylen sold? No mention of jrue holiday throwing the ball out of bounds up 3 OR fouling while up 2!! They are not in those “sold” situations if jrue doesn’t do any of that.” 

Despite Joe Mazzulla’s efforts to validate the accused star’s play at the end, fans found ways to call him out after tonight’s loss. They have a lot to work on. This is their second loss in the last three games. Do these losses send a deeper message about the Celts’ championship opportunity this season? Let us know in the comments.