Joe Mazzulla is always looking for the best possible version of the Boston Celtics. Entering their second game without starting center Neemias Queta while taking on one of the league’s hottest teams in the Detroit
Pistons, it appeared to be a tall task even on their green NBA Cup home floor.
Yet, on Wednesday night, in a game that’s undoubtedly the favorite for the Celtics’ biggest win of the year, Boston’s scrappy rotation ignited an electric TD Garden for an early season-defining performance.
Out of 48 minutes, Mazzulla says 40 of those represented the best version of these Celtics.
“Tonight wasn’t about the execution as it was the mindset that we played with and the multiple efforts that we played with,” Mazzulla said. “I just thought we had the grit and the toughness to do whatever it takes to win.”
The Celtics, who were outrebounded and outshot from the field and free throw line, found themselves in a similar late-game situation to their first matchup against Detroit in October that ended in a 119-113 loss.
That game was defined by rebounding woes that reared their head in the final minute. In their latest matchup, the Pistons had four offensive rebounds in the final 5 minutes, yet the hot-shooting heroics of Derrick White and the paint-attacking force of Jaylen Brown accounted for 18 of their 20 clutch time points to help end Detroit’s 13-game win streak.
“It just shows that on any given night, we can play with anybody,” Jaylen Brown said.
Mazzulla was also quick to point out how the energy of TD Garden played its role in the win, saying that regardless of record or result, Celtics fans appreciate the kind of effort the team brought down the stretch.
“I want to thank the Garden for that, because they just appreciate great basketball…They just appreciate the grit and the toughness,” he said. “That’s the standard we have to play up to every night.”
In his post-game press conference, Mazzulla mentioned the energy-shifting hustle from players like White and Baylor Scheierman and their role in the win. He specifically highlighted a second quarter back-tip steal from White where he sprinted the full length of the court to catch an unsuspecting Jaden Ivey. That, to him, was an indicator of a big-time Derrick White performance coming up.
“When Derrick made that play, I knew he was going to snap out of it,” he said.
White, who had a season-high 27 points to go with seven rebounds and three steals, was at the center of Boston’s second-half success, both finding his touch from deep that’s often eluded him early in the season while making plays on the defensive end to hold off a Pistons team that’s a league-best 10-2 in games that reach clutch time. He, too, credited the energy in the Garden as a momentum-swinging factor.
“Playing in the Garden is always a blessing,” White said. “A game like that: competitive, physical, hustle plays, the Garden lives for stuff like that. A lot of us made those big time plays, and the Garden got behind us and helped us get that dub.”
In 18 games, we’ve seen a lot of different versions of the Celtics, both good, bad and somewhere in between. Mazzulla knows it won’t be this way every game, but on Wednesday night, it was Boston at its best.
“Trust me, we’re going to have more games like this, but we’re going to have some where we don’t play well,” Mazzulla said. “But over the course of 82, we just have to fight to be as consistent as we can and the best version of ourselves.”
