The Boston Celtics bricked nine consecutive threes in the final five minutes of their Game 7 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
As the Celtics kept missing threes in the clutch, Chicago Bulls legend Ron Harper — the father of Ron Harper Jr. — called out Joe Mazzulla for not altering strategy.
“I love basketball can someone explain to me the last 5 mins of @celtics and
@76ers game? Boston down by 1 & 3 and keep shooting 3s…. Please help me.”
As Harper alluded to, the Celtics were down 97-96 when Jaylen Brown made a 13-foot pull jumper at the 5:02 mark. Thereafter, the C’s missed nine consecutive threes before Payton Pritchard made the only other field goal in garbage time. Overall, the Celtics shot 2-for-13 in the final five minutes, getting outscored 12-6 by the 76ers.
Celtics Change Starting Unit
Ron Harper’s tweets were extremely timely, given that his older son, Ron Harper Jr., was inserted into the starting unit at the very last minute for Saturday’s Game 7.
In the previous six games of the series, Mazzulla started the proven unit of Jayson Tatum, Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. However, Tatum’s knee injury forced the Celtics to make a significant change to the starting unit, inserting Harper Jr., Luka Garza, Baylor Scheierman. Incidentally, all three players finished with zero points, making a bit of NBA history in the process.
“The Celtics are the first team to have three different starters (Luka Garza, Baylor Scheierman, Ron Harper Jr.) with 0 points in a playoff game since starters were first tracked in 1970-71,” ESPN Insights wrote on X.
Celtics Squander 3-1 Series Lead
Harper wasn’t the only one who called out the C’s for resorting to their trigger-happy ways and paying the ultimate price. As was widely reported before Game 7, the Celtics had shot less than 30% from three in their previous three losses in the series. Right on cue, they shot 13-for-49 (27%) from three in their season-ending loss.
Mazzulla defended his team’s strategy to go bombs away until the end.
3 of those times were the Celtics in this series. They were 1-2 in those games.
Joe Mazzulla: “I love the looks that we got. I love the process that we had. Hate the result.”
All things considered, the Celtics had a successful 2025-26 season. Many expected them to suffer a gap year after Tatum suffered an Achilles tear in last year’s playoffs. Yet, Mazzulla’s team won 56 games and entered the playoffs as the betting favorites to represent the East in the NBA Finals.
“Great season,” Jaylen Brown said after the Game 7 loss.
“Obviously, it didn’t finish the way we would’ve liked. I give credit to Philadelphia. I watched them get better as the series went on. But just for our guys to come out in a Game 7 and play with that level of intensity and trust, that’s the style we felt like we’ve been doing all year, and I loved it.”
Celtics Starter’s Father Calls Out Joe Mazzulla After Game 7 Loss