Joe Mazzulla REACTS to Xavier Tillman Trade | Celtics vs Hawks Postgame

Joe Mazzulla REACTS to Xavier Tillman Trade | Celtics vs Hawks Postgame

So obviously you know we parted ways with Lamar Stevens the Celtics organization did um what are your thoughts on that was that a difficult uh conversation to have with him uh yeah I mean it’s always a difficult conversation uh when guys put so much time in and you get to know them from

The beginning of the year and you see him every single day um but he he was good about it um and I think just the way he says how he carries himself so the professionalism that he has uh he never missed to day and uh he was kind

Of one of the guys that you know spearheaded our Stay Ready group and just constantly stayed ready so uh I’m excited for him he’s excited about the opportunity and uh I’m happy for him Joe uh you guys went 32 or 44 from two in this one still able to get 49

Threes up though Started Hot from two still able to generate the amount of Threes you want there how do you kind of strike that balance in this one uh I thought we just took what the defense gave us I thought um we were able to execute really well uh off top of my

Head I saw maybe five to eight shots uh that I thought we could have fought to get better but for the most part we took what the defense gave us um and uh you know we executed well and know Xavier Tillman coming in in that trade what’s

Kind of your thoughts on him and you know what he’s going to bring the team uh toughness he can pass skilled um high IQ obviously a good defender in pick and roll and uh excited to have him and that be important for him to get up to speed

Kind of on our defensive schemes and um I think it’ll give us some you know some versatility Joe Al split this season on the off coming off the bench and as a starter he split right down the middle 21 games a piece what has impressed you

The most about how he’s been able to handle that role um this is the ultimate compliment you know what you’re getting and when you have people in the NBA when you have guys that you know what you’re getting every single night uh it’s the ultimate compliment and uh he’s that guy

You know what you’re getting every day in practice know what you’re getting in the locker room know what you’re getting on the court and I thought his play tonight uh kind of inspired us I thought um he just chipped away at winning play after winning play and uh it was great

To see him be aggressive on the offens ENT also hey um you’re being very aggressive but at the same time you’re not making the other team make turnovers like what do you achieve to do that like being a good defense without creating turnovers like where does that come from and what

Are you trying to achieve being like not a turnover creating defense but still a very good defense yeah I mean I think it just goes back to there’s mult there’s different ways to skin a cat you can be a great defensive team in many different

Ways um you know I agree with you uh not being able to force Turners is not something that I like but uh I think we’re really good in a lot of other areas and um you know it’s a it’s a it’s a catch 22 if you if you try to force

More Turners and you’ll be unsolid in other situations and you’ll give up other stuff and so at the end of the day we’re you know top two or three in shot selection defense and uh as long as we can control the rebounding and we can control our turnovers I think those two

Things kind of fit the mold in the personality of our team more than trying to force turnovers um but I do think still think we play relatively aggressive at times on can I ask you about Safi your tman now yeah it’s after 645 what do you think he brings to this

Team uh skilled uh toughness um well coached you know um obviously we paid a lot of attention to him um you know just because of the team that he plays for and the coach that he has and I think his defensive versatility uh you know he has numbers he has really good numbers

Against some of the top centers in the league uh his pick and rooll defense and rim protection is pretty good so I think just gives us versatility at that at that position and he he also can switch like he can handle a lot of switches he can be in

High pick and role like how important is it that he’s not only a tough he’s Underside Center but he can handle the different roles you put your centers in uh yeah I mean it’s important for our bigs to be versatile they have to be able to and I think that’s where um KP

Has grown kind of in our system and I think where alen Luke are the foundation uh tools to our defense is they have the ability to change matchups every possession they have the ability to guard different guys they can navigate off ball communication they could switch

And they can change their depth in pick and roll so it’s the most it’s one of the most most important positions in our defense is our bigs and their ability uh to be versatile and so he’s shown that and um we just got to continue to coach

Him on it and get him up to speed in our system so looking forward to it Joe the what was the difference in your defense between the first half and the second half um that’s a great question uh I think it Al you know what the biggest thing was

Sedig Bay was uh four for five from three and Johnson was two for two two for three from and so like this is the team that we talk about there’s like five or six teams that are like that you go into it and we’re like okay Trey Young’s Trey

Young banovich has kicked our ass for the last 10 times we played them we got to do a great job on those two guys and so we follow the game plan and then Johnson aong Wu and Bay account for over 75% of their threes and so I don’t think

It was the effort it was a little bit of the execution but it was also a part of um kind of the things that we needed uh to begin the game giving up and so we made a better adjustment to continuing to do a good job on bogdanovich and Trey

Young but but then we uh increased our pressure on those other guys to not give them uh the type of shots that they got and when you see somebody like Jason Tatum who like the three-pointers that he took you probably look back and say most of them were probably fine I think

Two of them I was kind of like ah we could get a better one on there but for the part they were good and so so the question is like he was very obviously getting to the rim kind of at will um is there a point there where you kind of

Encourage him like you know that the three-pointers are there you say look man you they they don’t have capella there’s there’s not a lot of protection there you’re big you can get there and you’re getting there pretty easily why not focus on that more than some of the three-pointers than that you’ve been

Taking uh I mean I think it’s easy to say that in a vacuum and it’s easy to say that uh after the game you know because at the time you don’t want to say something like that and then take away from you know his ability to make

Those shots and the freedom you know in the mindset to do so I think it’s just about taking what the defense gives you also understanding we were 21 for 26 from two in the first uh half um I think we got another 22 up layups or something

Like that or 20 in the second half um but the game changed uh not when he decided to drive the ball but when he was facilitating also and I think 10 straight possessions we put the ball in his hands and pick and rolling he just made the right read over over and over

Again and I think that’s the most important thing is uh just finding the balance of his shot selection which I think he continues to work on uh but it’s his ability to affect the game in many different ways and uh he did it tonight in his pick and roll ball

Handling and I think he closed out some of our possessions with making the right read and you know I think he was a part of the reason I thought we pass the pill we had 33 assists and 14 turnovers final two questions Jack Joe there have been a few games lately I

Know you said you like the ones where you go down you can fight your way back and stuff like that this one you managed to take down a Hawks team that been pretty hot lately especially on offense and a guy in Trey young who’s been hot lately uh you’ve been preaching

Mentality All Season at a time of year where some players are the natural reaction is auster breaks right there you know coming down to it I swear you guys talk players into that more than it actually is but not you personally but just like the uh that’s the narrative

It’s Allstar break well what’s impressed you most about this team’s ability to have that day-to-day mindset you talked a lot about and you’ve always said you know the healthiest relationship you can have with success to know you can get better what areas have you noticed that they could also still get better yes

I’ve noticed that I mean I definitely think we’ve uh we haven’t been great all the time you know obviously last uh couple games we didn’t play our best basketball but uh I do think we’ve continued to keep an open mind to getting better and uh the type of

Practices that we’ve been able to have I think the last two or three practi that we had there was one at Miami and there was two here uh just the the approach that we had towards the details and the technique and the things that uh we were

Trying to work on and uh I also I I appreciate and and the relationship that we have with winning and losing is very important and so uh as long as we can continue to be like really hard on ourselves internally about the things that matter in the details and push

Ourselves uh not get to uh either way on a win or a loss uh but come in the next day and work I think that’s the healthiest relationship we could have and I’ve seen the guys really work to uh approach it that way last question here Joe um you guys lost

The free throw battle and the rebounding battle some of the margins you like uh but you guys were able to obviously stop him defensively are you pleased with how you guys are responding to some of the adversity Jason’s didn’t get a lot of calls tonight and you guys seem to kind

Of grind this one out as opposed to uh letting them I mean they scored 144 points we talked about the last game shutting them down and kind of using other ways to win yeah I mean I thought the way we played the game tonight was

Kind of how I would like our approach to be is like we were down two uh at the first quarter but it didn’t it didn’t we didn’t really show whether or not we were winning or losing right um and then we win the second one by six and then we

Get a 23-point quarter coming out in the third which nobody wants to talk about the third quarter since we had a good one 23-point quarter nobody all right we’ll just wait till the next bad one um but I think just the approach that we had throughout the entire game is was

Like we never wished for it to be over we never wished for things to be a little bit easier we never just kind of we just played the game and continues to chip away at it and I think uh that’s the space that we have to live in thank you

BOSTON — Following the Boston Celtics 125-117 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, Joe Mazzulla shared his thoughts on the team’s recent acquisition of Xavier Tillman from the Memphis Grizzlies. The Celtics traded two second-round picks and Lamar Stevens for Tillman, a move aimed at strengthening their frontcourt as the season heads into a pivotal phase. Specifically, Memphis received the Atlanta Hawks’ 2027 second-round pick, the Dallas Mavericks’ 2030 second-round selection, and forward Lamar Stevens as part of the deal. Mazzulla’s postgame comments highlighted the significance of adding Tillman to the Celtics’ roster, emphasizing the depth he brings to the big-man rotation.

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