Joe Mazzulla: Kristaps Porzingis HASN’T Had Injury Setback | Celtics Practice

Joe Mazzulla: Kristaps Porzingis HASN’T Had Injury Setback | Celtics Practice

um just checking on Chris THS obviously what what kind of things he doing on the court these days what is his progress like where do he got uh I don’t know I haven’t seen him um doing what he’s doing specifically but I know he’s getting better each day I know he’s working hard so um I’ll get more when I go downstairs when he comes in today but um you know he’s progressing well and he’s working really hard to get back so everything everything is there hasn’t been any setback or anything like that he’s um what what did you like most about these first rounds playoffs about kind of the way you guys have really taken care of business every every step and kind of seemed like maintained your focus really throughout yeah I mean I think just uh you know we play without an expectation without a sense of entitlement uh I think we just played with an understanding that um even though we’re a good team we have to be the harder playing team so I think that’s important uh felt like we weren’t distracted um by anything other than the things that impact winning all the details the margins you know I always talk about regular season in the play play offs are the same and it’s no different heading into the finals um as you get closer to achieving your goal it’s easy to become distracted and at the end of the day uh the margins will be the reason why you win a harder playing Team uh all the small details that go in so felt like we valued that um felt like we were great defensively uh when we needed to be and um you know we just fought to stick together and make winning plays so just got fight keep that are you watching the um Dallas Minnesota Games Live or you trying to is is it hard to watch it when you can’t pause it and or how are you approaching these games in terms of you have a notebook in your hand you watching it with other people how how are you scouting when you P this much time uh I mean after we won I I wasn’t watching the games until we won and then you know I watch it live but then you know our staff doing a great job of preparing uh the perspective and the necessary things that we need to go over on a daily basis so um I’ll watch it a little bit live just looking for some themes and Concepts uh that I notice and then we’ll kind of of the stuff has it been you feel like it’s been valuable you have this much time to kind of watch it and then and then and then see how it best translates for your guys well yeah I mean anything can be good or bad for you depending upon how you use it time could be good it could be bad you just everything goes into how you use it how you weaponize it so we’re weaponizing our time right now and uh you know that’s it Joe looking back on the Eastern Conference Finals three of those games in the clutch how valuable are those experiences particularly since you guys didn’t get too many of those and what did you see from your group what allowed you guys to come out in those yeah I mean the ability to win different ways is very important so I would say that’s another thing that we’ve been able to do throughout the playoffs uh is just win different ways um executing um playing from behind uh protecting leads so anytime you can find different ways to win I think it’s important and um in the late gamees I just saw um our attention to detail defensively I saw a level of poise and and then heighten awareness to execution which is the most important thing and at the end of the day you got to make plays and so our guys made the necessary plays to win on both ends of the floor how valuable are those experiences that you’ve had already to know what works for your group and and how much of it is a balance of time off versus getting in the gym and going five on five going yeah I mean they’re only valuable if you use them to your advantage the next opportunity that you have so nothing is really valuable if you let it go to waste and so um between now and June 6th we have to take every experience that we’ve been through and uh we got to make sure we take advantage of it and that we utilize it to put ourselves in the best position to win Joe what are the emphasis for practice tomorrow and Saturday how much might those change if Dallas clinches tonight um I mean practice is all about the details in the margin so uh making sure we get better as a team making sure we get better offensively defensively make sure we understand our situational philosophies our situational execution things that go into winning uh same things we’ve been doing all year those would be the points of emphasis and um you know I think regardless of who wins we got to get better so we’ll do that tomorrow Joe uh there’s an expectation of heighten pressure getting back to the mountain top again or getting a chance to compete for the mountain top again how do you keep your team centered uh specifically some of the guys that are coming off the bench and keep them ready to contribute when it is their time to contribute yeah um I mean I would say that we all have an expectation of ourselves so and I would say that expectation is probably higher than anything from any other play place so the expectation we have from ourselves is the standard it’s the most important thing and um I mean our bench has been great all year so I mean there’s nothing really to change they’ve done great for us um you know every series is different uh and you know what goes into winning the series is completely different so matchups change sub patterns change roles change uh coverages change and so we just have to be open-minded and have an understanding that uh whoever’s out there has a chance to impact winning and uh we just need to be ready to do that at all costs I Judes wondering I guess obviously very different experience two years ago for you but just personally what what did you take away from that and uh I guess maybe can apply to this run what I took away was that like there’s nothing different that goes into winning in a regular season in a in a playoff series and there’s three or four possessions that could completely change a narrative so n Smith hits that corner three if we don’t get a steal then we may not be sitting here and so when you get to a certain places everybody always ignores the what if possessions and they always go to all the good things that we did and then when you lose everybody ignores the good things that you did and talked about all the what if things that you did and so what separates winning and losing uh is obviously a mindset and toughness and execution but things also have to go your way and Jimmy Butler hits that three two years ago maybe we don’t go and so like everybody always forgets about the five to 10 plays that can really have an impact take a look at when Man City won four in a row the son had a break away and it gets ricocheted off the backup goalie and then they end up winning so like uh when you win everybody always credit to and then when you lose everybody always blames you and in reality it’s like 10 possessions that separates you and some of those have to go your way Joe there’s a number of players on this team that have not played through this playoff run younger guys two-way players um what are their contributions like in this title run um and what do you what are they gaining out of this experience as well I mean they got to be ready you never know like we had an injury we had to go to uh two different plays um OA and x uh who didn’t play as much throughout some of the playoffs and so their number one job is to stay in staes ready to go at any point in time they could play one possession five possessions uh so you know our Player Development staff and those guys do a great job of just staying ready staying in shape working on the game plan working on the details uh focused on the things that are necessary to winning and stay locked in because at any point in time you can go in and that’s the thing we talk about as a team is anyone and everyone has to be ready to execute coverage execute a couple possessions and so uh our staff and those guys do a great job staying locked in

Joe Mazzulla previewed the NBA Finals, talked about where Kristaps Porzingis’ injury recovery is at and how he’s watching Timberwolves vs Mavericks in the west finals that’ll decide their opponent.

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