The Boston Celtics have developed a bad habit of letting their offense stagnate late in close games, and it's led to some unnecessary close losses. Tuesday's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers was the latest example, with Anfernee Simons sitting on the bench while the crunch-time offense fell flat. Getting Simons on the floor in these moments would seem to be the obvious solution to fixing this problem.
Much of Joe Mazzulla's fourth quarter substitutions have prioritized defense first, but that approach isn't holding up when the scoring dries up. Benching Simons in favor of defensive matchups makes sense in theory, but what it's ultimately done is stripped Boston of enough dynamic shot creators in moments where they need them the most.