On a night no one thought the Celtics would win — at the end of a season many believed they couldn’t contend —Joe Mazzulla made one final statement for his Coach of the Year candidacy.
The final Celtics injury report for Sunday’s game against the Orlando Magic listed eight Celtics players out. Notably, their top seven rotation players were missing. On the other hand, the Orlando Magic had all their regulars and were fighting for homecourt in the first round.
Orlando’s active roster carried a salary
of $173 million, compared to just $11.5 million for Boston. An astounding $161 million difference. On paper, this looked like a typical Game 82 snooze fest between one team that had something to play for and another that supposedly had nothing to play for. And Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics put on a show for Celtics fans at TD Garden.
All season long, it hasn’t mattered who has stepped on the court for the Celtics — as long as they are wearing green, they play hard, connected, and they execute.
“We said it all year, 1 through 15, whoever steps on the floor, there’s an expectation to put us in position with the opportunity to win. Stick to the process of winning. Today is no different than the other 81 games,” Mazzulla said.
When asked what that level of buy-in says about him as a coach, Mazzulla deflected in classic Mazzulla fashion:
“Nothing. It says everything about the team; they’re the ones who have to go out there and do it. It just proves that we have really good players. It proves that we have a system. It proves that we have a locker room that cares about winning.”
Whether Joe Mazzulla thinks the Coach of the Year award is stupid or that the credit should go to the staff, or the players, he is one of the front-runners to win the award. As he should be.
Basketball teams reflect their coach. Mazzulla holds every player to the same standard. He holds Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to the same standard as Ron Harper Jr. and John Tonje. That consistency builds belief. It empowers players to deliver the calibre of performances we saw last night. Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr combined for 84 points, and John Tonje enjoyed a breakout performance. And it wasn’t simply due to chucking shots all night. Luka, Baylor and Ron combined for 84 points on 65.5% true shooting — a hyper efficient scoring barrage. If you showed the box score to someone without the names, they would think those numbers belonged to Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.
While Mazzulla deserves more credit than he would ever give himself, he’s right — the players deserve a ton of credit as well. This was a huge opportunity for the stay ready crew to show the basketball world what they are capable of.
Luka Garza echoed a similar message pregame. “Luka said it before the game, huddled up, this is for all the times that we’ve been on the bench, all the times we want an opportunity, we had a chance to go out there and show it.”
From Baylor, who has already shown he can go off in big moments like in Madison Square Garden earlier last week, to John Tonje, who not only recorded his first field goal as a Celtic, but also contributed a flurry of threes and a spattering of hustle plays, they were ready to take advantage of their opportunity.
What looked like a throwaway 82nd regular-season game turned into a special night at TD Garden. Joe Mazzulla was the architect of the moment — and he’s more than deserving of Coach of the Year.
