Joe Mazzulla Takes Blame For Final Two Plays That Led to Celtics Loss

The third-year Boston head coach blames himself for the team's latest loss.

Jan 23, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla at a press conference at the Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has opted to shoulder the blame for the decisive final two plays in his team's latest loss, a 114-112 defeat at the hands of the rising young Houston Rockets.

Per Jay King of The Athletic, Mazzulla reflected on his role in the defeat postgame.

Joe Mazzulla: “Those last two plays were on me. That’s my fault.”

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) January 28, 2025

"Those last two plays were on me," Mazzula said. "That's my fault."

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Houston forward Amen Thompson played late-game spoiler for Boston, who had led the Rockets by as much as 12 points earlier in the night. He evaded Celtics defenders and nabbed an easy dunk thanks to a Boston breakdown to put up the Rockets 112-110. Following a timeout, six-time Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum nabbed a layup to tie the game, 112-112, with 5.3 seconds remaining in regulation.

With Boston struggling to stop the Rockets, center Luke Kornet grabbed a take foul in an effort to disrupt Houston and give the Celtics' defense more time to gameplan.

Off a Fred VanVleet dish, Thompson received the ball beyond the arc, but drove inside to notch the winning floater with 0.7 seconds remaining in the contest.

After the Thompson floater powered him to a 33-point night, Boston sixth man contender Payton Pritchard heaved a 59-foot 3-point prayer, to no avail, with time expiring.

The loss drops Boston to a still-impressive 32-15 record on the year. Thanks to a three-game Cleveland Cavaliers losing streak, Boston is "just" 5.5 games behind the East's No. 1 seed. Cleveland is currently 37-9 on the season.

Boston, however, is just one game ahead of the streaking New York Knicks, winners of four in a row. New York, now 31-16, is just one game behind Boston.

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The victory improved Houston, now the West's No. 2 seed behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, to a 31-14 record on the season. It's possible the team won't have any All-Stars this year, although for this writer's money center Alperen Sengun has done enough to earn himself a nod, as the best player on his conference's second-best team by record.

Three-time All-Star Boston swingman Jaylen Brown scored a Celtics-most 28 points on 10-of-23 shooting from the floor (3-of-9 from deep) and 5-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe.

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