NBA Playoffs 2012: 4 Major Causes for the Celtics' Game 5 Loss

The Celtics dropped a hard fought Game 5 to the Hawks, 87-86, pushing the series to a Game 6 in Boston.

For the Celtics, they miss out on a chance to close the series early and get extra rest while at the same time, give new life to a Hawks team on the brink of elimination. With the Hawk's Game 5 win, they certainly made the series interesting. Now the Celtics have one shot to close them out at home and avoid a Game 7 in Atlanta.

If the Celtics want to close the series out in Boston on Thursday, they will need to avoid making the same mistakes that cost them dearly in Game 5. While many will point to the final possession where Rajon Rondo failed to get a shot off, there were much bigger issues throughout the game that ultimately lost it for the C's.

Paul Pierce Was Not 100 Percent

Although it would be easy to write off Pierce's Game 5 injury given his love of drama, there is no denying that Pierce was really held back by his injury throughout the game.

After his fast start, he really cooled off and proved mostly ineffective in every aspect of the game. On the defensive end, he sagged off of his man, Marvin Williams, allowing open threes and could not recover fast enough on back cuts. Offensively, he did score 16 points, but he could have had much more if he were 100 percent. The ball was in his hands for two potential game-winning baskets—the first he got to the rim and tried a tough reverse layup instead of trying to draw contact and the second he air-balled a step back that he normally makes.

His injury is definitely more severe than the Celtics are letting on. Hopefully, he will be at full strength for Game 6.

Poor Defensive Rebounding

After being solid on the boards for the first four games of the series, the Celtics turned back into their poor rebounding selves in Game 5. They allowed the Hawks to pull down 13 offensive rebounds and gain a plus-eight advantage on the boards.

For the most part, those offensive rebounds came from penetration the Hawks were getting. When a Hawks player would get into the lane, a Celtics big would step up to defend the shot.

Because of that, the Celtics bigs oftentimes found themselves out of position for rebounds. Other times, the Celtics just didn't box out. For Game 6, the C's need to cut off penetration and box out to prevent the Hawks from gaining an advantage on the boards.

Too Many Easy Baskets for the Hawks

For the majority of the shot clock, the Celtics defense really was a "wall" like Doc Rivers wanted.

However, there were several defensive breakdowns throughout the game that led to easy baskets for the Hawks. As I talked about in the last slide, defensive rebounding was a big issue for the Celtics and those offensive rebounds for the Hawks led to many easy shots.

Also, on more than a few possessions (usually when KG was out), the rotations were not as crisp as they usually are. The defense often over rotated to one side and allowed the Hawks to get easy shots when the Hawks swung the ball around. Back cuts were another killer for the Celtics.

All of these mistakes the Celtics made on defense are quite correctable, and if they fix them for Game 6, then they will be able to hold the Hawks to even less points.

The Final Play

When Rajon Rondo stole the inbounds pass with 10 seconds left and the Celtics were down by one, I had visions of the next great steal in Celtics playoff history.

First there was Havlicek stealing the ball, then there was Bird stealing the ball. Both are moments that will live on forever. Unfortunately, Rondo's steal did not have a story book ending like the steals of former Celtic greats Hondo and Bird.

I normally don't like to play Monday Morning quarterback, but in this case, I can't help it. There are a few things Rondo could have done differently on that final play. First of all, he could have turned the speed on right after he got the steal and outrun everyone to the hoop. Instead, he chose to wait for the half court offense.

Once in the half court, Kevin Garnett should have set a more solid screen for the pick and pop. The screen Garnett set was barely a screen and it threw the play off. After the screen was sort of set, Rondo made a mistake—he went to the baseline. From a young age, players are taught to not go straight to the baseline because it adds another defender. At least Rondo should have got a shot off, but he couldn't do that.

In the end though, it's one possession in a game that had over 100. The game could have and should have been won before that. It would still be foolish to pin the loss on Rondo and that one play, even though he should have played it differently.