A fair few head coaches in the NBA like to give their bench players a heads-up if they’re going to play more in a particular game, but Joe Mazzulla isn’t part of that group. In his press conference after the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat 108-89 at TD Garden on Monday, Mazzulla was asked why he had opted for that approach.
“I just feel like if you give a guy an idea if he’s going to or not going to, it changes his preparation on a daily basis,” Mazzulla said. “I want our guys to come into the arena every day thinking that their process is important towards winning.
“They have to be ready to go and they got to treat every single game as if they are going to impact winning,” Mazzulla continued. “By not telling them, it allows them to treat every single day as if it’s the most important day and they do a great job of embracing that.
“But it’s important because there’s just a lot of unpredictability over the course of the season,” Mazzulla added. “You gotta be ready to go at anytime. If you’re only ready to go because you know you’re going to play, then that doesn’t really help your process.”
That’s pretty sound logic. Mazzulla wants all his players to be consistent with their processes and it ensures that when they unexpectedly get an opportunity, they are up for the challenge.
The Celtics were missing some key players for their last two games against the Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis were out against the Heat while Jaylen Brown and Derrick White didn’t play against the Cavaliers. Despite that, the Celtics nearly won both teams, only losing in Cleveland due to a fourth-quarter collapse.
Mazzulla had someone like sophomore forward Drew Peterson play over 24 minutes in both those games. Peterson had played about 30 minutes in total in his NBA career prior to these games but was ready to go when called upon.
While I’m sure some would point to potential downsides to Mazzulla’s approach, you can’t argue with the results. He has a ridiculous 138-47 record since he took over as head coach of the Celtics before the 2022-23 season and won the title last season as well.
Mazzulla’s Celtics are in a good position to repeat too, as they are currently second in the Eastern Conference with a 17-4 record. They have won eight of their last nine games, with the only loss in that time coming against the 19-3 Cavaliers.
Mazzulla has this Celtics team firing on all cylinders and I give them a very good chance at becoming the first team to successfully defend the title since the Golden State Warriors did it in 2017 and 2018. The 36-year-old won’t be looking that far into the future, though.
Mazzulla’s focus would be on winning the next game and the Celtics will take on the Detroit Pistons at TD Garden on Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET. They won the first meeting between these teams this season 124-118 and I expect a more lopsided scoreline this time around.
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