Mastering the final possession is the final hurdle for the Celtics

The Celtics are a juggernaut. They’re basically unguardable. They’re the most talented team in the NBA and the favorites to win it all.

There’s just one slight but significant problem. When the game is on the line, and the Celtics have the ball, they have an unhealthy tendency to find Jayson Tatum and watch as he takes a contested fadeaway jumper.

That’s partially on Tatum, partially on his teammates and partially on Joe Mazzulla and the coaching staff. It’s a rectifiable issue, and the final hurdle to clear as they pursue a championship.

As John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston astutely notes, Tatum’s last-second miss against the Cavaliers on Tuesday is far from the first instance this season.

In fact, it’s happened against the Pistons, Timberwolves and Nuggets. Ball to Tatum, everyone clears out, fadeaway, miss.

“I just tried to get a clean look,” Tatum told reporters Tuesday night. “In hindsight, I probably should have went a little bit earlier to give us more time and another opportunity.”

Conceptually, it makes sense. Find your best player, exploit a perceived mismatch and let him go to work. In reality, it’s not the answer – particularly with so much talent around him.

Brian Barrett of The Ringer pointed out that Tatum has by far the lowest shooting percentage (32.6) in clutch time among the starters. Naturally, his percentage is bound to be lower because of all the attention he draws; at the same time, it shouldn’t be in the low-30s.

This isn’t meant to dis Tatum, either. He’s having an MVP-caliber season and is indisputably the best player on the best team. Tatum, his teammates and the Celtics simply need to figure out a better way to give the team a better chance to succeed. It’s about the situation, not the player.

The irony of it is that the Celtics are moving the ball extraordinarily well the bulk of the game. They consistently turn down good shots for great ones and make one another better. Then that often disappears in the final seconds.

“Of course everybody is ready to make a play at the end,” Kristaps Porzingis told reporters. “We trust JT and we live and die by those last possessions, last shots.”

It’s nice that he has his teammate’s back, but the reality is that the Celtics are dying more than they’re living in that scenario. Of course there are outliers, but their late-game execution is the one area that leaves something to be desired at the moment.

So, what’s the solution? Well, there are a few possibilities. One idea is to have Porzingis set Tatum a ball screen. That puts the defense in a tricky spot, as the defender has to worry about both options and everyone around them.

Another is to give the ball to Jrue Holiday or Derrick White and let Tatum and Jaylen Brown work off the ball. If the right play is to shoot, Holiday or White will do so. If Tatum or Brown finds some daylight, they’ll get them the ball. Set screens away from the ball, pass and cut, master the fundamentals.

But perhaps most important of all is to simply play with pace and get into the action early. They tend to let the clock run nearly all the way down before Tatum makes his move. Run your offense, move the ball and find an opening.

It’s not a question of talent; it’s just about trusting what works in other situations and applying it in the clutch. Keep it simple.

“We just got to get into it faster, go faster,” Mazzulla told reporters.

He’s identified part of the problem. Now it’s time to find the solution.

There’s no team in the NBA the Celtics can’t beat. But when everything’s on the line, and they have the ball in the final seconds, it shouldn’t necessarily yield a Tatum fadeaway.

It’s too predictable, and there’s enough of a sample size to say it doesn’t work a high percentage of the time. If the Celtics can figure out a formula for the defining moment, to increase their odds of converting in the clutch, they’ll be on their way to a title.