Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has a well-earned reputation for leaning into unorthodox techniques as he helps shepherd his ball club to the postseason each year. And while deploying double bigs (or, two big men on the court at the same time for those of us who are not keyed into the tactical side of the game) is not exactly a radical tactic in the modern NBA, doing so with a pair of centers who have not exactly made a name for themselves as jump-shooting bigs is.
But that is exactly what Mazzulla did in the Celtics' recent 114-93 preseason blowout of the Charlotte Hornets at TD Garden on Wednesday (Oct. 14) night. "We knew we were going to do that before the game," said the Celtics coach postgame. "We just wanted to get some game reps
in so we could have it on film to see what we want to work on, and that's something we have to do before the regular season starts – just exploring."
"I have a deep bench, a lot of depth, so I want to give every look imaginable so that we’re able to have a general idea of how we want to attack it defensively and offensively when the season starts," said Mazzulla, who revealed that the bigs in question, Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta, only learned of the plan that day. "The guys didn’t know we were going to do it."
"We hadn’t practiced it, the first time they knew was at the beginning of the quarter, so we got caught up in some janky spacings that you ideally wouldn’t want," said Mazzulla. "That being said … I think the best version of Neemi (Queta) gives us a little bit of playmaking opportunities and being able to make plays off the dribble in the seam."
"I think the session in the second half where a fake dribble handoff got downhill and led to a dunk there; that's envisioned making those types of plays, but I thought they handled it well … we threw it at them and wanted to see what we could get out of it."
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Joe Mazzulla on logic behind new Boston Celtics twin towers lineup
