Joe Mazzulla has been ridiculed for his timeout usage – or lack thereof – this season, but the Celtics coach picked an important moment to call one in Sunday’s Game 7 win over the Sixers.
The Celtics were trailing early in the second quarter, their offense wasn’t flowing yet and they were getting irritated by a series of unfriendly whistles. A questionable foul call on Derrick White, who barely made contact on an exaggerating James Harden, set Mazzulla off. He stormed to midcourt arguing the call. He called a timeout, then brought the intensity to the huddle. There was still 10:09 remaining in the second quarter, but it seemed to be a pivotal point.
“I think in a game like that … the guys are so focused on playing hard because they want to win, that you lose sight of how the reality is sometimes,” Mazzulla said. “Our guys have such the right intentions. So just building an awareness of, ‘Hey, here’s how the game is going. We have to shift it. We have to shift the momentum, we have to get it back.’ And the guys did that.”
It took a few minutes – and with the aid of Harden’s arm making contact with Jaylen Brown’s nose, generating a momentum-shifting flagrant foul – for it to happen. But the Celtics went on a run to take the lead after trailing by as much as nine. They ultimately took full control, thanks to Jayson Tatum’s 51 points. Mazzulla’s timeout to settle things down in a chaotic playoff environment was beneficial.
“We needed to stay the course,” Al Horford said of Mazzulla’s message. “Both teams came out hitting. They kind of hit and made a run and he just kept perspective for us. He’s done such a good job managing our team, our locker room, through ups and downs. He has a really good feel for things and I’m very happy for our team that … for him, it’s not easy being in this position and he figures that out and he’s putting us in the best position to win.”
Mazzulla has taken his fair share of criticism throughout these playoffs. He’s recognized his own mistakes and there has been some learning on the job. But his players certainly trust him, and as he navigated difficult moments in guiding the Celtics out of a 3-2 series hole against the Sixers, it only reinforced their belief.
“I think it’s fair to say that if Joe freaked out, nobody would have blamed him,” Marcus Smart said. “He’s a first-year coach put into this situation, he’s put into the hot seat and then you have a team that’s not playing up to its standards, then you’re getting the criticism and then you come back and win two games.
“I think nobody would have been surprised if he blew up, but he kept his composure, he kept his poise and like I said, we believe in Joe and Joe believes in us, and this is the reason why, right here. He might be a first-year coach, but that’s a guy who’s going to go to war and battle and that’s who you want on your team.”
Brown’s technical foul in Game 7 was rescinded by the NBA, the league announced on Monday.
The Celtics star was issued a questionable technical in the second quarter after a crazy sequence. Brown crashed into the 76ers bench saving a loose ball, and was turning to run back up court when Georges Niang grabbed his leg while sitting on the bench. Brown turned around to say something, and head official Scott Foster ran in and assessed the technical on him before reviewing the play.
After the review, Niang was also given a technical. Foster announced that Brown was issued a technical for “taunting the bench unnecessarily.” So, the Celtics weren’t given a reward for what happened even though Niang’s action initiated it.
Brown wasn’t upset at Niang, saying he just caught up in the emotion of the game, but was certainly annoyed by how the situation was handled.
“I don’t know which way I should have responded to it,” Brown said. “But if I didn’t do anything it probably would have played on. And here comes Scott Foster, right away before even deciphering the situation gives me a tech. I definitely didn’t want to get a tech in that situation, but somehow coming out of all that commotion, it ended up being even, right? And it was nothing, no advantage from that, ended up calling it even. I got a tech, he got a tech, and then it just being a side out. And I think a play like that, that should have been a little bit more.”
The Celtics are eight-point favorites for Wednesday’s Game 1 against the Heat and heavy betting favorites to win the series and advance to their second consecutive NBA Finals. But the Celtics certainly are not overlooking their conference rival and the fact that they knocked them off in the playoffs last season doesn’t give them any added confidence.
“Nothing about last year matters,” Brown said. “Miami isn’t thinking about last year, I think they are coming out and ready to play basketball, if anything atone from last year. We just got to come out with a fresh mind and execute what’s in front of us and I think that’s the key. I’m looking forward to it, it will be a great challenge and it should be fun.” …
Grant Williams was named one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award, which recognizes the season’s most impactful social justice advocates. The other finalists are Steph Curry, Jaren Jackson Jr., Tre Jones and Chris Paul.