Why would Philly need a timeout? If Boston takes one there, Philly 100% takes Maxey out which was the matchup they wanted.
You can say, hey there were other good matchups, but they decided Maxey was the best one, and that would be unavailable to them with a timeout.
I just think fans think timeouts are some silver bullet that magically get you a win if you call one. What likely would've happened would've just been Tatum running at someone that wasn't Maxey. That's the NBA. You just give your star player the ball late and say go get a basket.
Phlly needs a timeout to go offense/defense. Because they didn’t have one, they can’t fully commit to that plan.
Because Philly can’t fully commit to that plan, they would have had a minimum of 2 defenders on the floor that Boston could scheme to get isolated. As I pointed out earlier, these are two defenders that Boston felt very comfortable attacking previously this series.
I don’t think the timeout is some magic silver bullet just like a defensive substitution isn’t a magic silver bullet.
I think when it got down to 9 seconds and there was pretty clearly not much of a plan, a timeout should have been called. That’s not even accounting for the struggles that this particular group has at the end of games.
To reiterate, I don’t think a timeout means they automatically win the game. Game 1, a timeout was called and the play call immediately after was vomit inducing. IMO, a timeout where the players regroup and know what they need to do, raises the probability of a good clean shot getting off by a good deal.
EDIT: BTW, I am not even entirely convinced that Doc makes a substitution there. Doc’s the king of riding with his starters until the wheels fall off