Joe Mazzulla Reacts to Celtics Clinching Playoff Spot | Practice Interview

Joe Mazzulla Reacts to Celtics Clinching Playoff Spot | Practice Interview

How special has this season been for you guys and you know you you po a playoff spot for the 10th straight season but you know how exciting is that for you guys and how special has this been for you uh yeah it’s a balance I mean you

Got to uh just enjoy every day and understand um you know the success that we’re having isn’t natural uh doesn’t always happen in the NBA you don’t have yours like that so grateful for that and uh don’t take that for granted uh but really just kind of focus on the daily

Approach towards that and at the end of the day you know whether you win or lose you got to come in the next day and get get your work done so guys have done a great job of doing that just got to keep that up when you talk about your daily

Approach uh how important is it for you guys to to clinch the top seed is that something that you’re thinking about or not really uh I mean at this point in the season the best way to think about that is to just continue to do what

We’ve been doing and allow the chips to fall where they may and so um you know if we continue the same approach uh we’ll achieve those results and uh I think that’s the best way to handle that at this point Jo talk about uh davier kind of taking

Pressure off of him defensively out there how have you seen that kind of Chemistry Between them develop and and how does he do that yeah so our bigs versatility is one of the most important things for our defensive system and I think Al has led the charge on that and

Uh you know Luke has really grown in that versatility and so the ability for Bigs to play alongside each other and execute different coverages and guard different matchups uh super important and so uh you know and that was the process of when we got X of kind of

Being patient and taking time in you know initiating him into the system uh is so that it’s seamless when it does happen and so his ability to play alongside Al and play alongside Luke he play you know in the Utah game is uh really just comes down to his uh ability

To handle different matchups defensively handle those coverages communicate and uh like you said take pressure off the other big but also show the versatility uh to to make sure our defense kind of stays where it is how has that integration gone like you wait to to

Make sure that he knew some of the language before you got him in there and you like how that kind of worked out uh that’s exactly what we did just been very patient waited for him to understand the language understand the Dynamics of it uh you know obviously the

Staff doing a great job getting on the floor with him and walking him through all of the the rules and areas uh and you know just him hearing you know the few first uh shoots or the film sessions and getting a clear understanding of what expectations are and then just the

The understanding of every possession changes so having the the open mind inness and the the Readiness to be able to you know pick up on that so between the staff and him being on the court doing a great job that uh it’s kind of helped him get to where he is talk a

Little bit about those jayen Jason rotations a lot of time Jason comes out early in the first couple times the last couple weeks you’ve gone to jayen in that spot how do you kind of look at that and you know in terms of I think you’ve talked a little bit about like

The hot hand and who’s like got it going in that spot how have you kind of balanced those two and their rotations and how do you look at that going into the playoffs uh I mean it’s just both of them were having constantly free flow and conversation throughout the game uh

Credit to them just kind of uh trusting the staff on a decision that is made at the time but there’s a few things that go into it obviously you know if one of them’s playing really well you want to keep that last night we changed the sub

Pattern so that uh we could keep the matchups that we wanted uh later in the half later in the quarter and uh so it’s just a constant free flowing thing that you know at first is the best interest of them and then that the next best

Thing is how could we make sure we’re taking advantage of matchups having the right lineup so just a free flowing and conversation and uh the guys have done a good job of communicating that and the dynamic between obviously you know you’re not predetermining shot totals and stuff like that but Jason jaylen’s

Had more shots per game know since all CBR here he’s been a little bit more of a focal point for you guys Jaylen um over Jason has that kind of you know just been like the matchup since the break like what’s kind of led to Jaylen

Being a little bit more of a focal point in the off uh I just think they two different players and so I don’t think it you know the goal was never for Tatum to get the most shots in a game the goal was to play efficient basketball and win

The game and so uh the two of them are understanding how they can have impacts on the game differently and jaylen’s impact comes uh in transition with his speed and his physicality and his ability to create defense to offense uh with his on ball defense and pressure

And so a few of those a lot of those shots are really in transition uh because of just his ability to run and and tatums comeing half court where he likes to play chess and uh take advantage of pick and roll matchups whether handling or screening and so the

Amount doesn’t really matter much it matters the process of getting them and I think since the All-Star break and really throughout uh the second half of the Season they’ve both been really fighting to get the best shot possible for them and their teammates through what the game is giving them and that’s

Really what it comes down to think about defensive units uh uh Five Guys who were chemistry-wise play the best defense as a everything’s just matchup oriented so yesterday in the first half uh Luke and X played one matchup and then in the second half we

Switched and it went X then Luke and so it really just comes down to I think we have great Synergy and connectivity between all the guys the most important thing is uh having the right lineups versus the right coverages versus the right match ups for the other team and

Knowing that that could change at any time and so in the first half um it L then X second half went X then Luke and the guys did a great job and so as long they’ve done a great job keeping their open mindedness towards what makes the

Most sense to win the segment of the game we also win the game and so we have to keep that open mind in this approach to execution and doing whatever is necessary in the moment to win you get a couple games days off in between games

This late in the season how do you try to go about capitalizing on that that downtime and how first you feel they come back Sunday I have no idea if we’ll come back Sunday let you know on Sunday uh but I think it’s just given exactly

What the team needs and so at this point the team uh you know as far as the month left a lot of back Tob backs rest but at the same time we got to clean up details and so today was more of a film day

Walkr day um and end then a travel day tomorrow so it’s really just making sure just doing whatever the team needs at that particular moment uh making sure we’re taking advantage of the time that we have with something film uh you know walk through uh individual meetings

Whatever it may be do you plan to start resting players now that you guys have locked up a playoff spot uh we’ll do whatever we got to do to win the game how’s Christos doing uh he’s doing well he’s on the court today got work done continue to get better better um you

Know day to day what is the balance with only 16 games left but a 10 game lead in the Easter Conference between deciding when to rest players and when to uh yeah I mean I think it just comes down to what’s in the best interest of the

Player what’s in the best interest of the game uh and what that looks like so luckily we have a whole science department that specializes in that and uh they have the best interest of the player and we work together on what that looks like uh but regardless of who’s in

Who’s out I think what you’ve seen is we’ve played certain level of basketball and that’s the most important important thing uh you create an environment in a locker room of where you know guys are out but you can maintain your level of uh physicality and your identity on both

Sides of the ball it’s the most important coach knowing you’re from the area knowing what the banners and the lineage means how special is it with all pierces around the team whether it’s on game night or come to practice and just connect the erors for us in that uh yeah

I mean that started last year inviting this past season inviting all the guys down and he kind of normalized his presence by being here for training camp being in coaches meetings being at practice and uh I felt like that was a really a big step you know uh to kind of

Tie those the past and the present together and make them more you know humanizing instead of through the banners and through pictures and so having those guys guys back is great and that’s the goal is how to build the connections between the past and the present through uh relationships and uh

So it’s always special to have those guys around men some of the double big lineups X and Al you’ve seen luk and X you know really every combination of those guys how important is it to have that you know layer to your team and what are you kind of seeing from those

Groups on that I throw o sh in there as well because you have o sha Luke minutes you had and Al minutes at the beginning of the year and the most important thing is maintaining our defensive versatility and maintaining our offensive spacing depending upon what the lineups are and

Making sure that we take advantage of those

Joe Mazzulla talked about the Celtics clinching a playoff spot for the 10th straight season last night, gave a Kristaps Porzingis injury update, hit on Jaylen Brown’s hot stretch since the break and balancing rest with the race of the 1 seed in the east late this season.

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