Joe Mazzulla on Celtics Clinching BEST RECORD in NBA | Postgame Interview

Joe Mazzulla on Celtics Clinching BEST RECORD in NBA | Postgame Interview

The the pressure they put on the rim obviously you know a lot of free throw attempt them in this one how do you kind of roll with those punches throughout this game and just the speed and penetration that they play with and still keep them at arms length for most

Of the game like you guys uh the pressure didn’t come from the penetration it came from the back Cuts uh so it it’s just they do a great job of when you’re trying to be in shifts if you’re up a little bit too high they back cut you so that’s where they get

Their offensive rebounds that’s where they get their uh put the pressure on the rim in that way and so um I thought the end of the third and the entire fourth quarter our body position was tremendous but I thought we had some where they were able to back cut us a

Little bit and so um it’s a good thing to learn from jaylen’s game tonight a little bit of a slow start picks it up late you know forces some turnovers would you make of his play tonight and overall his disruptiveness defensively this year do you think that’s been more

On him or have you guys kind of put him in a different position to succeed on that end the system you guys are playing stuff like that oh I think it’s both I think uh just growing in our system growing uh in our relationship is about

How we could be uh just better all of us and so he’s taken it upon himself to uh understand ways that he can impact the game other than scoring and really taking pride in being a two-way player being a sural player as well as his physical abilities and so because of his

Work ethic and his mindset he’s able to do that so in in in a game like tonight like even if it’s not going well quote unquote offensively his ability to rebound I thought the two plays he made in the first half where he tried to take

The charge on hren and then he got the block at the end of the quarter which saved the which saved the basket at the end of a quarter so like when it might not be going is your expectations offensively how can you impact the game and he’s taken pride in

That Joe how would you describe Christo’s uh impact on this game tonight all around yeah I think it’s a it’s a credit to him because of his physicality and his dominance um but it’s also a major um teaching point for our team because we had the discipline to attack

The switch the proper way the entire game and so if teams are going to switch us that way and we have a physical presence right there like we didn’t have any turnovers on postp passes we had very few turnovers in paint if they collapsed our spacing was rather good if

It was a post mismatch or if it was in the middle of the floor and so they tested our discipline to attack the switch you know uh with size and physicality and uh I thought our guys did a great job of trusting that which allowed us to open up some other things

Throughout the game is there still kind of some learning going on as to who this team is when you’re whole when you have you know everybody and kind of figuring out everybody’s Tendencies and and the way you guys want to play moving forward no not at all I think the learning just

Comes from how teams guard us differently so you saw they went zone for a couple possessions um you know so I think the learning comes from as the game starts or as you play teams different times um you know what are the answers to the different uh problems

That the opponent is giving us and tonight it was switching and physicality and uh for a team that is first in turnover percentage to only have 11 turnovers is a testament to the spacing and the decision making that the guys made Joe a lot of the box or game charts

I should say nowadays kind of look like mountain ranges like you guys go up big the other team goes in a r then you guys balloon the lead out again like tonight 16-point lead in the second quarter then they cut it down then you guys manag to

Bring it all the way back out to 25 what is it about this team that allows them to respond to other teams run so well and is it the offense the defense is it mix just ballooning leads out like uh I mean it has to it’s both the game’s

Connected in that way and so uh just understanding the es and flows of a game there’s natural runs there’s natural variants within a game and so having an awareness to uh why the Run has been made um having an awareness as to uh how to stop that and how to uh control the

Momentum of either side of the ball and so the guys have a good awareness of that and uh you can make plays on both ends of the floor to kind of combat that and then a couple weeks ago I asked you about the Player Development coaching

Staff um you talked about the work they do behind the scenes I’m curious about the different perspectives they bring to the table like all of them coming from different places some coming from overseas some coming from long coaching Journeys themselves um H how important is that you always talk about like the

Players having different perspectives from their past teams what they bring to the table that people don’t see I mean yeah I mean you just got to create an environment where like we all get to the same page but you got to do it through um each guy fighting for what he

Believes in and so you know whether it’s a a team meeting or a coaches meeting you know everyone has to everyone works really really hard so you got to have beliefs you got to have systems you got to have things that you think are the

Best and then we got to come to that together so the guys uh you know our Player Development staff our staff in general is extremely passionate about what they believe in and they work their asses off studying the game and studying teaching and developing and uh decision- making and so there’s always different

Ways to do it and so uh we just created an environment to where like everyone has a say to create that ownership and then you know we just execute it together it wasn’t a dominant start for you guys in either half um how did you

Guys how did your bench come in and kind of turn up the volume for you guys and how how how much has it helped your consistency level to have a group that when you need energy or like just always always seems to bring that yeah um it just guys have different roles do

Different things um we had a 25-point quarter so I didn’t think we didn’t I thought we got off to a decent start it just didn’t look the way that it looked so we were defending it just felt weird you know like we missed a couple shots

Uh but to keep that team to a to three 25 Point quarters is you know something but I think just guys every everybody on our team has a leadership quality that they bring to the table when they come into the game right and so um we just

Have different ways to play because we played so many lineups and when different lineups go out there we’re able to run different plays we’re able to run different defensive coverages we’re able to play just a different style and so you know what Sam Allen and

Payton are able to bring is is just that versatility and uh you just have to be able to you know go to different segments go to different lineups you know uh throughout games and I think the guys uh understand that jarn kp’s had a lot of blocks lately it

Seems like he’s kind of his rat’s gone up even just verticality stops especially on like drop off Second Chance what is he doing better lately or is it just schematically he’s just sitting near the rim more but what do you think seems different lately uh no I

Mean I think he he takes pride in his defense so I think just making a conscious effort to doing his work early being in a stance and and just reading the game I think it you underestimate the amount of time it takes to kind of play our system uh to because of this

The spatial awareness you have to have and the different places that you’re in the different matchups that you have and so I thought he did a great job today navigating uh the home R matchup and he did a good job navigating the cross matches um but you know just learning

The timing of of the help based on where you are is something that’s really hard to do and uh because of his positioning in his work in the film room and and on the floor he’s able to kind of just have a great feel for that it’s beginning of

The year it seemed like he was doing kind of mostly drop coverage and you started introducing more coverages new roles at what point of the year do you feel like it kind of all finally click for him where he kind of you could take the training wheels off and let him do

Whatever he needs to do uh that’s a good question I don’t really have a date or something in mind it just as it continue to grow and continue to build really it’s just the trust in the communication and the spatial awareness to know like the the why like you know we’re putting

You on this guy uh coming out of a timeout and just feeling the why of why you know stuff like that so I don’t have a pinpoint of it but he has definitely gotten much more comfortable in it Joe the stretch there about 17 minutes or so starting at halftime uh

Till you guys rebuilt a big lead seemed like that was kind of like the process that you’ve been talking about about stabilizing after they make a run you know they they threw a punch then you started answering and you you you know you kind of stopped

The bleeding and then you threw your big punch is that is that kind of the process that you’ve been looking for and and just kind of like what what did you see in that from the guys that that made them kind of go through that that whole

Yeah just awareness first of all it’s the understanding of knowing there’s going to be a run I think they shot uh you know 20 something per from three in the first half and you know we uh I forgot what the free throw margin was I

Think it was like 12 free throws to four so you have an understanding of like what they’re trying to do in the game um but just we didn’t have lightball turnovers like in the second half and so like when you don’t have light ball turnovers teams can’t score in transition they only

Had uh so they had 13 offensive rebounds for the game they had six of those in they had like six offensive rebounds in the second half so we’re able to take them out of their second chance points um so it’s just having an understanding

Of how teams uh stay in the game and how teams cut into leads and it’s live ball turnovers for transition it’s offensive rebounds and it’s fing and we didn’t do a great job on the fing but we did a good job on the offensive rebounding and

If you keep that team on a live ball turnovers it’s hard for them to get you crossmatched and that’s one of the things they’re best at so it’s just understanding how to manage uh the possessions and I thought our shot selection during that stretch was really

Good and that to me is another thing that leads to transition you Joe uh uh early third quarter you made a substitution you pulled I think porzingis uh and Jaylen like three minutes into the third uh eight 820 831 yeah something like that and then um Jaylen dribbled the ball off his foot

Like a minute left in the third quarter it was obviously he was struggling a bit what’s the process of letting him get out of it on his own and not kind of denying a minutes or just you know just saying okay it’s not your night Jaylen

But letting him make it his night oh yeah I mean we made that sub to change the sub PS because they changed their sub patterns um so it was another way it was for us to look at something different uh because we didn’t play as much double big in the first half and

Then we started the fourth quarter with that with that lineup so we changed KP sub pattern um and we usually changed Jaylen and Jason so it wasn’t because to me it was more about like um what Bobby was saying were like he’s going to find different ways to impact the game like

It wasn’t you know like I said it may not have been going quote unquote good for him on the offensive end but those two plays at the end of the second quarter those those plays show me that like you’re still locked into the game even when it’s not going well and I

Think that’s been the growth of him as a player is like how can I just dominate the game in different ways so like those two plays were like ah man like you know he’s locked in it’s just you know it just doesn’t doesn’t have he doesn’t have the Rhythm yet offensively and then

He gets the steal he makes a couple shots he gets layups and even the pass he threw to Drew and the pass he throws to Drew for Drew’s Corner three like you know because of his buying and his ability to impact the game in different ways you know what’s going to come to

Him eventually final question I have two sorry uh along that same time period was there something you were working on with this with that group in the half court offense uh no no um no and then clinch we talked about this outside but clinch’s the number one the

Best record in the NBA is that something that you mentioned to the guys do you celebrate that at all with them and and what is the message going forward yeah I mean if celebrating is as much as bring it in Shake everyone’s hand and say you

Know don’t take it for granted then yeah we celebrated it uh I think it’s important to not take it for granted I think it’s important to have the gratitude for that uh it’s very hard to do um you know we may never be in this position again so you don’t want to take

It for granted so yeah we definitely talked about it as a team talked about it before the game uh trying to treat this game as like the Clincher so that to kind of put that on ourselves to be able to do that I think it was important

For us to simulate that um and you know it’s just a testament to the guys and so we should enjoy it tonight and we wake up tomorrow you know nobody cares so just going to get back to work thank you Joe thank you

BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis delivered an outstanding performance with 27 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks, leading the Boston Celtics to a commanding 135-100 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. This win secured the Celtics the best record in the NBA and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla spoke postgame about Porzingis’ impact on the win, stating, “It’s a credit to him because of his physicality and his dominance. But it’s also a teaching point for our team because it teaches how to attack the switch…They tested our discipline to attack the switch with size and physicality and I thought our guys did a great job of trusting that.”

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