Quin Snyder Muffs Final Play, Tyler Zeller Makes Him Pay

Mar 4, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics center

Tyler Zeller

(44) and forward

Jae Crowder

(99) celebrate a last-second victory against the Utah Jazz at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

The Utah Jazz haven’t won in Boston against the Celtics since Matt Harpring was still an NBA rotation player and Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were still ringless. And somehow, some way, Utah found a way to keep that streak alive with Rudy Gobert placed some 20-plus feet from the basket on the final play, guarding Marcus Smart on the inbounds with 1.7 seconds to play in a one point game.

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Tyler Zeller and Rudy Gobert had quite a stirring battle in Boston, Zeller finding ways to get a couple of buckets versus the Jazz’s Stifle Tower of Doom. But the one that counted the most came last.

Gordon Hayward wanted badly to beat his former college coach from Butler, Brad Stevens, especially after Stevens had exploited Jazz matchups against Quin Snyder in Salt Lake City a little over a month ago.

Great win tonight fellas! Another tough test tomorrow #weowethem
— Gordon Hayward (@gordonhayward) March 4, 2015

With two minutes to play it looked like the Celtics had it in the bag when Gobert kicked out to Hayward in the corner — a three attempt that hasn’t been kind to him this season. And suddenly we had ourselves a ball game again.

A Rodney Hood jumper in the lane, a Gobert defensive rebound and Trey Burke layup later the Utah Jazz were suddenly back within one.

After forcing only three turnovers all night long, Rudy Gobert did what he does, blocking a Jae Crowder layup at the rim that would have been his second supposed dagger of the evening — by the way, welcome to the distinguished list of Jazz Killers, Jae.

With a little over nine seconds to play, the ball finds it’s way to Gordon Hayward, who finds a little daylight with Zeller on him, and…

Now with only 1.7 seconds left, Gordon Hayward and the Utah Jazz are poised to banish the Boston bugaboo that had plagued them for seven long years. I mean, you can’t lose now with The Gobstopper on your side, right?

As Jeremy Clarkson would say,

Right. Well, then…

Quin Snyder opts to put his best defender some 23 feet from the basket, on Marcus Smart, the inbounder. The Jazz play some solid defense on the series of screens, Gobert turning to run halfway back to the rim, seemingly out of his element outside the security of his comfort zone in the paint. It’s almost like he knew where he was supposed to be all along.

Brad Stevens is forced to call a halt and reset the play. Snyder opts to keep Rudy Gobert on the Celtics’ point guard, the switch starting the play.

Here’s how it looks, with Dante Exum following Isaiah Thomas to the corner where each would stay, Hood covering Avery Bradley, Hayward on Crowder in the close corner, Favors covering Zeller at the top of the key and Gobert on the inbounds with Smart.

Crowder and Bradley are going to run a screen switch, leaving rookie Rodney Hood trying to seal off the much larger Zeller, which he cannot do.

Tyler Zeller runs a screen switch to free himself

It’s all over at this point. The rest is mere formality. It’s nothing more than an easy lob for Marcus Smart over the sagging Rudy Gobert to a cutting Tyler Zeller.

Tyler Zeller GW’er pass cut

It’s a pass right on the money — not a difficult one, but it lands in Tyler Zeller’s lap. Zeller catches, turns, with Hayward and Hood faked out, and drops in the bunny for the win. Rudy Gobert miraculously still almost makes it there in time to stop the heart-breaker from happening.

Tyler Zeller game-winner against the Utah Jazz

This begs the question: Why would you put your defensive dynamo, your best rim defender, 20 feet from the basket? According to Quin Snyder, Gobert was supposed to be more like 25 feet from the rim.

"“We weren’t as aggressive on the ball as we needed to be. Rudy was too far back.”"

Remember, the Jazz got two chances at the final set.

"“And we let (Zeller) get on the inside of us where they could throw the ball over the top rather than stay in between him and the basket. And, um, y’know, two lessons learned.”"

Jody Genessey of the Deseret News asked Snyder if he questioned his decision to not have Gobert inside, or if he liked him out there on the ball, to which Snyder answered sternly:

"“Well he wasn’t on the ball.”–Quin Snyder, postgame, audio from 1280/97.5 The Zone"

Snyder would go on to mention “a couple little execution things that we didn’t do properly,” saying he usually has Gobert on the ball (a thing I cannot recall, personally, but the head coach of the Jazz would know what he does better than I, certainly).

Derrick Favors didn’t play as aggressively as he could have in defense of the Jazz’s first potential four-game win streak since the end of March, 2013 either, leaving Hayward and Hood to try and preserve the victory.

@Clintonite33 The quotes from Boston are telling. They completely read the Jazz from the first play and guessed Utah would switch again.
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) March 5, 2015

Here is the final play in it’s entirety.

Even though the Jazz had to fight back hard on a back-to-back, Gordon Hayward said the game shouldn’t have had to come down to the last play.