“2024 and Celtics are still getting cooked by D Wade”: NBA Twitter rains down on Jayson Tatum and Co for blowing 22-pt lead

On Tuesday, the Boston Celtics' 11-game winning streak ended after Jayson Tatum failed to convert the game-winner against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead, suffering a colossal collapse down the stretch as Cleveland went on a 23-2 run. The Cavs outscored the league leaders 34-17 in the final 12 minutes.

Dean Wade was the unlikely hero in the shocking upset win for the Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus-less Cavaliers. He had 20 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. Wade shot 5 of 5 from 3 and made the game-winning putback dunk with 19 seconds left. He also got five rebounds in that stretch.

Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds, but he had only two points in the fourth quarter on 1 of 8 shooting.

It was one of the Celtics' most embarrassing losses of the season, alongside the one to the shorthanded LA Lakers without LeBron James and Anthony Davis on Feb. 1. Boston's misery got mocked by NBA Twitter as one fan reminisced Dwyane Wade's prime against Boston:

"2024 and Celtics are still getting cooked by D. Wade."

More reactions followed:

Questions will arise over Jayson Tatum and Boston Celtics' ability to close games in postseason

The Boston Celtics have been head and shoulders above the rest of the NBA, along with the Denver Nuggets, when it comes to dominating their opponents. The league-best 48-13 record is reflective of their success. They are six games ahead of the team with the second-best record.

However, there's a consensus around the core that they might not be able to carry their regular season form into the postseason because of losses like the one they suffered Tuesday against the Cavaliers. It all started with Boston blowing a 2-1 2022 NBA Finals lead to the Golden State Warriors, and the critics got to pile on their misery after the 2023 NBA Playoffs debacle.

Jayson Tatum and Co. dropped 0-3 to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in the conference finals before losing in seven games. Even in the first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks and conference semis against the Philadelphia 76ers, the C's had glaring issues with their late-game struggles on both ends of the court.

Their willingness to rely on jump shots in lean patches and crunch time seems to have elevated their struggles. All five of their starters are defensively sound and solid as three-level scorers, so the kind of losses they had in the playoffs and against the Cavs and Lakers this season were unexpected.

Those obviously will spark questions around Jayson Tatum and the Celtics' ability to deliver the results come playoff time. However, every team has lowlights and the Celtics comparatively have fewer of those with only 13 losses this season and two that stunned everybody.

Boston remains an elite team that is the favorite to win it all.