In the locker room approximately an hour before the Boston Celtics tipped off against the Miami Heat, interim head coach Joe Mazzulla burst through the middle of the comically small visitor’s locker room and executed a textbook somersault. He sprung up, turned and pointed to the players seated at their lockers and exclaimed “You can’t do that!” then walked out.
Marcus Smart, when asked if this was some kind of inside joke, told a group of reporters that he had no idea where the somersault came from then pointed to a container holding several packets of gum.
“That’s all Joe,” Smart said. “We gotta stop giving him sugar.”
The Celtics, on the second night of a back-to-back with four of their top six rotation players out, lost in Miami by three. Despite the limitations, they led by as many as 14 and, prior to this one, had been 7-0 this season in games in which they had a rest disadvantage.
Earlier this week, Boston sports media celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Celtics’ second-half turnaround that propelled a run to the NBA Finals. At the helm then, of course, was former coach Ime Udoka, since dismissed, but Mazzulla was a key part of that staff. Despite preseason concerns that the coaching staff upheaval would result in a clumsy start, the Celtics have the best record in the NBA through the first half of the season.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough at the beginning with the injuries and obviously getting a new coach two days before the season started,” Tatum said. “But it’s kind of behind us and we just gotta continue to jell. I think we did a great job of managing that, and it’s shown.”
Since last season’s turnaround, the Celtics are a league-best 65-24. They owned a 2-1 lead over the Warriors in the Finals before losing three straight to the champs. They supplemented that core with Malcolm Brogdon and Blake Griffin over the offseason, recently got Robert Williams III back from a summertime knee procedure and look every bit the favorites in the East for the second-straight season.
The Celtics are the NBA’s only team ranking in the top five in offensive and defensive rating. Jayson Tatum has leveled up, from All-NBA shoo-in to MVP shortlist. Jaylen Brown made the leap from All-Star and is likely assured an All-NBA spot. The old pieces and new pieces fit seamlessly.
Joe Mazzulla and Jayson Tatum have worked together to keep the Celtics improving
Mazzulla has kept things loose. He encourages the Celtics to play fast and shoot 3s. He walks through hallways holding the straps of his backpack, somehow looking even younger than his 34 years of age. He’s forthcoming with the media. He might be the only NBA coach capable of — quite literally — turning head over heels and still be physically able to pace the sideline minutes later.
He famously refuses to call timeouts when opponents go on runs, trusting his players to find solutions on the fly. Against the Heat, that may have backfired. After Bam Adebayo’s 11-foot jumper gave the Heat a two-point lead with 20 seconds left, Mazzulla declined to call a timeout to draw up a final play. Instead, the Celtics got the ball to Tatum, who was promptly double-teamed. Tatum attempted to lob a pass to Grant Williams in the corner, but his pass was intercepted by Tyler Herro. The Celtics didn’t get a shot attempt on the final possession.
“I should’ve just threw it to D-White in the slot,” Tatum admitted. “Throwing a crosscourt pass that late at that time of the game is pretty risky.”
“I just didn’t call the right play,” Mazzulla said. “We had the ball in our best player’s hands.”
It would be inaccurate to credit Mazzulla for Tatum’s career year — Tatum, at 24, has gotten better each season. He’s the NBA’s third-leading scorer at 31 points per game. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Tatum has the fourth-best MVP odds behind Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
But Mazzulla has engineered an offensive ecosystem in which Tatum can thrive. He wants his players to play fast and move without the ball, and Tatum is thriving in the space Mazzulla’s offense provides.
With more room to work, Tatum’s efficiency is up on drives and in isolations from last season. With more of a team-wide emphasis on player movement, Tatum is scoring more off screens and has nearly doubled his screen assist rate (from 0.5 to 0.9 per game).
It’s hard to see this and not think of the team the Celtics just lost to in the Finals: The Warriors.
Stephen Curry may be the greatest shooter in NBA history, but he has also built his Hall of Fame-worthy career on moving without the ball and setting screens for teammates. Tatum, a knockdown shooter averaging a career-high 9.4 3-point attempts per game, is learning to harness his gravity in a similar way.
The Celtics’ recent overtime victory over the Warriors served as a signature win during the nine-game win streak that preceded these back-to-back road losses (Boston lost in Orlando on Monday). Unlike Golden State, holding onto a spot in the play-in tournament, the Celtics have a 3.5-game lead for the top seed in their conference.
“I love the way that we’ve played thus far this season,” Tatum said. “Obviously we lost two on the road but overall we’ve had a great start, overcome a lot of adversity and still found a way to be a really great team.”
While being the best team in the NBA for abridged portions of two seasons under two coaches is impressive, it doesn’t count for much. In Boston, championships are the expectation.
The Celtics are reportedly interested in acquiring frontcourt depth and shooting before the Feb. 9 trade deadline. Last season, in his first year as president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens acquired Derrick White from San Antonio. It would not be a surprise if he made another big trade deadline swing, but to say the Celtics have team “needs” would be overstating it.
At times, the Celtics can be too reliant on jump shooting. They could work harder to get in the paint more, and concerns about how they will fare in grimier playoff games remain. They don’t have an elite shot creator outside of Tatum.
But no team is perfect. (The 2017 Warriors aren’t walking through that door!) This Celtics core has been together now for tough battles and has a clear identity. There’s a reason they have the best record in the league. But after reaching the Finals and coming up short, there’s an acknowledgment that they still have much to prove when the games matter most.
“We still have a long way to go,” Tatum said. “Hopefully we continue to get better. We don’t wanna stay stagnant and be the team now that we are when the playoffs start. It’s hard to pinpoint one area. I think we can get better in a lot of ways.”