Mazzulla’s terse comments suggest Celtics are locked in for Game 5

Mazzulla’s terse comments suggest Celtics are locked in for Game 5 originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

After the Celtics loss to the Mavericks in Game 4 of the 2024 NBA Finalsnoted Mavs coach Jason Kidd Boston entered the game “ready to celebrate” while Dallas was more focused on the task at hand.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla seems determined to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

When asked on Sunday what it would mean for him to join a “special fraternity” of coaches to win a championship in Boston, especially at such a young age – at 35, Mazzulla would be the youngest coach to win a title since the Celtics. /coach Bill Russell in 1969 – Mazzulla has made a difficult change to the present.

“That will never happen if you don’t run back in defense, rebound, execute and get to your space,” Mazzulla responded. “That’s the most important.”

The Celtics fell short in essentially all of those areas on Friday night in Dallas, where the Mavs outscored them 52-31 and scored 122 points, the most Boston has allowed in regulation this postseason.

The good news for C fans? Mazzulla’s club has a history of recovering from terrible defeats.

Boston went a perfect 3-0 during the regular season after losing by more than 15 points in games, with an average margin of victory of 16 points in those games. This postseason, the Celtics followed up their 10-point loss to the Miami Heat in the first round with a 20-point win in Game 3, then followed up their 24-point second-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 13-point win. in Game 3.

If history repeats itself on Monday night in Game 5 at TD Garden, the Celtics will be NBA champions. But Mazzulla’s players are taking a page from their manager’s book and doing their best to stay in the moment.

“You can’t take it for granted. It’s going to be tough,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said Sunday of the lessons his team can take from Game 4 into Game 5. “You’re going to have to fight and just stay in the game.

“That’s what matters most: We go out and we’re a team. We win as a team, we lose as a team. We just go out and be the best versions of ourselves.”

Part of what has made the Celtics so good this season is their ability to not let losses snowball; they have only lost consecutive games on three occasions and have yet to lose three games in a row en route to their 79-21 overall record.

That starts with the tone your head coach sets – and which could deliver Banner 18 as early as Monday night.

“I think the most important thing is that our process for improving has been the same whether we won or lost, whether we won or lost big,” Mazzulla added.

“We always try to find the 10 or 12 possessions where we can improve and figure out the things we did really well and how we can do more. I just kept a consistent process toward our postgame recovery and then how we grew from that going into the next game.”

Game 5 begins at 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday, with Celtics pregame live starting at 7pm at TD Garden.