The Boston Celtics have reached the NBA Finals this season, thanks to Joe Mazzulla and his coaching style.
Celtics guard Derrick White stood behind the 3-point line late in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. And Jaylen Brown moved into the lane, drew defenders and flipped a pass toward him, White was ready for the moment.
That is because coach Mazzulla had simulated scenarios like it throughout the regular season.
“It starts in practice with them championship stations that Joe loves to do,” White recalled. “It starts there and then just continues to trust one another.”
White believed that Brown would make the correct basketball play. He did, and it ended with Derrick connecting on a tie-breaking 3. This secured the Celtic’s spot in the NBA Finals. It got them a showdown with the Dallas Mavericks.
The strategy is also an example of how in his second year as coach, Mazzulla has helped Boston recover from the shame of a campaign that ended on the cusp of the Finals a year ago. This season has the Celtics four wins away from securing their 18th championship.
Mazzulla said, White’s shot is testament to the type of team culture he has been trying to build over the last two years. One that prioritises details.
“Things that you can’t take for granted,” Mazzulla said, “Sometimes it’s as small as getting the ball inbounds. But just try to pick little things that we see on a nightly basis that can impact winning and can affect losing. And, we just practise them over, over and over again until they become second nature.”
What equally contributed to Boston’s success this season is the adoption of an egoless team-first philosophy. No one player takes credit for the team’s accomplishment on a roster packed with All-Stars like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, White, and Kristaps Porzingis.
Mazulla has also reaped the benefits of working with a coaching staff he chose in the offseason. This is something he did not have last campaign after being forced into a job he did not expect, when Ime Udoka was suspended days before training camp.
Head assistant Charles Lee and Sam Cassell have helped Mazzulla upgrade a system built around 3-point shooting and defence, which watched Boston rank first and third in offensive and defensive ratings during the regular season.
These rankings have stayed the same this postseason for a club that is 6-0 on the road and 3-0 in close-out matches.
However, while Mazzulla and his staff have established their philosophies through X’s and O’s, they have also focused on the mental aspects of the sport.
Last season it was through film sessions that started with Mazzulla showing the Celtics images of sand castles, which represented a metaphor that even the best castles are washed away by the daily tide, requiring them to be rebuilt.
It was something Tatum described as “a little cheesy” but “something we bought into.”
Joe’s tactics were once again present in a showdown win back in March over the Phoenix Suns. He went viral after sprinting to dispute the Suns’ Royce O’Neale practice basket entering into a timeout.
“I saw a guy going in to get a shot and he hadn’t made one and I didn’t want him to feel good about himself going to the bench,” Mazzulla explained at the time. “That’s the bench rule. … If I’m going to ask the guys to contest, the staff’s going to do the same thing.”
Mazzulla said later during an appearance on Boston radio 98.8 that instances like that are the foundation of their team culture.
“We can laugh about it. But at the end of the day I think you have small moments in your organisation to set the temperature of what you want to be about,” Mazzulla said. “We did that last year and thinking back, that’s an important thing that mindset that we try to bring. That we’re going to bring it every day. That we want our opponents to constantly be uncomfortable. We don’t want to give them an edge at any point.”
Holiday acknowledged that Mazzulla’s style is unique, but one that he’s come to appreciate during his first season in Boston.
“You go with it. You go with the craziness,” Holiday said. “I think maybe it’s controlled madness. I think it’s definitely his way of preparing us and I feel like preparing himself. And I feel like it’s been working. It’s fun. It’s different. … Joe definitely brings a spark and some weird energy.”
From Mazzulla’s perspective, it’s about forming the kind of bonds that may ultimately bring Boston another championship.
“I think, one of the best gifts that I have is, why I got into coaching is building relationships with guys,” he said. “When I left college to go to the NBA, most people were, like, hesitant about that because NBA guys get a negative rap as to being able to build relationships with them. But I felt like it was, ‘There’s a lot there.’”
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