Joe Mazzulla on BEATING Ime Udoka Led Rockets, Jayson Tatum EJECTION | Postgame Interview 1/13/24

Joe Mazzulla on BEATING Ime Udoka Led Rockets, Jayson Tatum EJECTION | Postgame Interview 1/13/24

You talk about how much you love the math of three-pointers and you won this game almost exclusively on the three-point shooting you talk about the margins they outshot you they out offensive rebounded you so they they won a lot of the margins so where do you fall on your overall assessment of this

Game uh it’s a great question um never going to not be happy after a win but I think it gives us space to know we can get better uh I think it’s that time of year um and so I thought the third quarter was that that was like the the

Physical the defense that’s like who we are who we need to be and we had moments of that uh and moments of really good offensive execution um in the first half um but like you said you know that’s a it’s a good win uh but we got to live in

The space that we can get better and it’s not not that anything’s wrong it doesn’t need to be a big deal but um if we can live in the space of uh we’re a good team um but it’s not good enough that I think that’s a healthy place to

Be and I think that’s how we can grow and back to my question from before the game like where did you think the guys heads were going into this did you did you feel comfortable where they were mentally heading into this with all of the stuff that we mentioned before the

Game uh I think so I mean I don’t really I honestly don’t try to get into their minds because I think they’re NBA players and they have distractions every game uh you know you know uh they have things going on in their lives all the

Time so I try not to get too into like what are they thinking in this game I think um again it’s it’s never the intentions with us like we we play with the right intentions it’s the execution and as we continue to become a better team teams are going to continue to uh

Guard us differently have to do different things to try and knock us off our game and we have to be aware of what those things are and we got to be ready to execute against them looking back at how this team’s evolved over the last several years having that kind of crazy

48 hour stretch of the overtime game against mini then the blowout against Milwaukee how do you feel like this team has been good at just kind of putting things behind them and bouncing back and not going into slides yeah I mean it never felt like uh we were too high

After the Minnesota game and it never felt like we were too low after the Milwaukee game I think those are the things that we have to create to get to the next day and uh those are the things we got to you know ask and say and do

Like tonight when you said like what do we have to prove anything like I I don’t we never crossed our mind you know so I think our guys just have a healthy mindset of uh where are we at uh are we playing okay are we getting better

They’re a smart team they’re a High character they’re high IQ team so we always know when we’re playing good basketball we know when we’re distracted we know when we’re connected and I think that’s the uh that’s the space you got to live in and you’ve had a bunch of

Games like this where first quarter early on is kind of tight and you just gradually open up a lead what how do how is the team kind of figuring out a team or how are you guys figuring out a team early in games and actually making it

Work um I think it just kind of comes to our defensive identity I think giving up a 31o first quarter allows a team to hang around and then um 25o quarters are really hard like we talk about you know you get a 49% chance if you get one 68

If you get two like 27s are decent I look at the 27 28 27 and that’s the the difference is like a foul you know one rebound that gets you in and one one poor Rim re that gets you a transition basket at the end so we’re not talking

Entire quarters we’re talking five possessions a quarter that we have to get better at and I think uh when we live in that space of like okay there’s five possessions we got to clean up this quarter that’s the difference between you know the the level that we want to

Get to and the level we’re at you’ve been emphasizing uh everything Jason and Jaylen are doing besides scoring this year things people aren’t noticing but they have the last like two weeks both been turning up their scoring like at the same time what have you seen during this relatively good efficiency you got

32 points on 15 shots both of them uh relatively efficient tonight so I think they’re doing a good job of getting to their spots of understanding the coverage and uh picking and choosing um when to attack so you know I didn’t look at the box score in the Minnesota game

But uh I do like what the uh intention that they’re playing with Joe uh Jason’s ejection it’s his second one this season I’m not going to ask you if you’re concerned about that but you know he he has a propensity to get some technical fils you know is there something that he

Can do or something you can say to kind of and bring that back no what was your opinion on on the foul call I mean the space that I’ve been in this last week when it comes to stuff like that I try not to have an opinion should we talk about your

Favorite movie scene again exactly yeah I mean sometimes you’d like to see the passion from players sometimes it’s distracting them from what they should be doing is that where how do you feel with Jason talking the raap set oh I mean he had I mean again you look at

It’s it goes back to that point of uh everything we have to do has to lead to winning right and so I think in the NBA you have that space of um having to defend yourself and for me having to defend my guys and there’s a time in a

Place for that you know there’s a time in a place for everything and you know you just got to pick and choose your spots and are you okay with him choosing that time in that place yeah I mean I trust his judgment Joe earlier this year talked

About Sam haer’s defense uh there a few times tonight where Rockets went at him and good we get we get a lot of reps it’s good there was one position where Sam and some of the other assistants got up and started like you know yelling

Stuff at him you know tell him to stay home and he did a good job I think they were like 03 when they isolated him what have you seen from him on the defensive end this year and how important is that him locking in with already having that

Three- Point SC uh I’m seeing his same thing I saw last year seeing the same thing I saw um when I first coached him in summer league I you know people uh a white shooter that most people think he can’t play defense so yeah I said it and

He’s been able to play defense since I coached him in summer league and you know he does a really good job of taking Tendencies does a really good job of understanding who he’s guarding he does a really good job of not giving up angles and he’s been that way since day

One so I’ve always said he could guard I’ve always knew he could be a good Defender and the more people attack him the more reps we get for the playoffs I hope he you know they continue to do it people called it Hower Island Island last year so you’re you’re accepting the

Hower Island like yeah I never bought into that I was fine when they um it was more about everyone having to Shake The Stereotype that he couldn’t guard which I already knew than Yeah final question back of the room here say I know you guys were up during halftime I wanted to

Ask how do you keep your team like in the game yeah uh it’s a good question I think sometimes um you have to find ways to challenge your guys and you have to find ways to uh you have to have a healthy balance of challenging and at the same time uh understanding how

They’re playing and so I think at halftime it goes back to what we talked about after the game if we’re just going to sit back and be happy after every win then that’s an unhealthy relationship with success and it’s going to come back

To bite Us in the ass and if we have a the healthiest relationship to have with success is to understand that you can still get better and so I think that’s the space that we have to live in thank you thanks

BOSTON — Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla, spoke to the media after Boston’s 145-113 victory over their former coach Ime Udoka and the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. When asked about the non-call leading to Jayson Tatum’s ejection, chose a reflective approach, stating, “The space that I’ve been in the past week, I try not to have an opinion.” Jayson Tatum, before his ejection due to back-to-back technical fouls in the fourth quarter, contributed significantly with 27 points and eight rebounds. This performance helped the Boston Celtics maintain their undefeated home record.

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