Don’t let any of the postgame comments over the past couple of weeks fool you. The Celtics are well aware of what’s been going on.
When Joe Mazzulla stood in front of his team in the locker room, he spoke freely. A team camera recorded it all, and you can tell from his comments that he was probably as frustrated about what he’s been seeing as the rest of us.
“That’s the team we’ve been for a majority of the year. That mindset. That maturity. That's who we are,” he told his team. “From a basketball standpoint, we won everything. We had 11 more shots and we only had five turnovers. So when we got the itch to turn it over, we shot it. That's good. Thank you for listening. We beat them at the free throw line and we beat them at the 3-point line … that's the team I know.”
This W was about getting back to who we are 💪🏽☘️ pic.twitter.com/wyRRgNYMKj
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 22, 2023
Finally.
It’s obvious Mazzulla was wondering the same thing a lot of us had been wondering.
‘Who the hell are these guys, and what have they done with the actual Boston Celtics?’
Whatever Kirkland brand of Celtics basketball we’ve been getting since the All-Star break was replaced by the premium hoops we got early in the season.
The ball moved. The energy was constant throughout the game. They attacked the basket and the rest of the offense flowed off that. They forced turnovers and they ran.
“That looked like the team I recognize,” Jaylen Brown said as he walked off the floor. “We came out, we played 48 minutes, we didn’t take our foot off the gas. We took care of business.”
Yes, the Kings were playing their fifth game in seven nights. That definitely factors into this equation. But the Celtics did what a team is supposed to do in those situations. No one is feeling sorry for the Kings (okay, well, maybe we do feel a little sorry for the Kings, but that's a whole other thing). This isn’t some charity event. The Celtics went out and took the game, finally giving the Celtics a blowout win in a situation they were supposed to get a blowout win.
So don’t believe Mazzulla when he tries to downplay this road trip.
“If it wasn't nine games before the regular season was over, and if we weren't in first place the entire year, and this road trip was at the beginning of the year, and we were 4-2, everybody would be happy,” he said after the game. “We have to maintain a level of perspective, understand this was a hard trip. And there were moments where we played really, really good basketball, and there were moments that we didn't. I think we learned from that and tonight we were able to put a full 48 minutes together, and so that's just something that we got to continue.”
Uh huh. If … if … if ...
But it IS nine games before the regular season is over. And the Celtics WERE in first place all year. We can’t strip this trip of perspective and then turn around and say we have to keep perspective. That's not how this works. You don’t get to soil yourself and then turn around and say ‘well if I was a baby instead of a grown man it’d be no big deal.’ The situation is what it is, and Mazzulla knows it. The reason so many people were angry and confused was precisely because of the timing of when it happened. It’s also the reason why Mazzulla said what he said in the locker room. It’s why Brown’s first reaction in the heat of the moment was a similar sense of relief.
If this was a scripted TV show, this would have been the scene where someone with amnesia finally recognizes a friend at the hospital. The Celtics finally remembered who they were and they played like it.
There isn’t as much consternation about Boston shooting 44 3-pointers because they generated mostly good ones (aside from one lazy stretch in the first quarter). They attacked first and then kicked it out to shooters for shots that looked like they should go in. When those are the 3-pointers they create, a 41% shooting night is not surprising.
The Celtics reminded us, and themselves, of what basketball is supposed to look like. In the process, they outed themselves for playing the horrible basketball of the past few weeks. They proved that attacking and ball movement works better than holding the ball and taking passes off one shot. They showed that focusing on closing out quarters pays off with big leads.
They showed that they can do it if they want. Forget all the analysis and the numbers. There's nothing else to say about this team at this point until the playoffs start.
If they want to play basketball a certain way, the right way, they are fully capable of doing so. Even if the results aren’t always as positive as they were in Sacramento, this style of basketball is what makes them contenders. They are fully capable of doing it, and doing it for a full 48 minutes.
They just have to want to do it.
