Celtics notebook: Process over results, Payton Pritchard's work, and Jaylen Brown's boxing

The Celtics hit the practice court after a few days off, which they definitely needed. But that doesn’t mean the competitive itch of watching other teams still playing on weird courts for a mid-season trophy isn’t there. 

“It’s a Catch-22. You’re not playing in the NBA Cup, you're not playing for something, but at the same time, I thought we learned a lot from it,” Joe Mazzulla said before the team got down to business. “Now we get some time to take a step back, take a look at where we are, where we're trying to get to, get the guys a couple days, and then also just work to get better. So it's been good.”

The Celtics are following a stretch of six games in nine days with two games in 11 days. Whew. 

Boston has come through this first third (okay 31.7%) of their schedule at 19-5 with the league’s third-best offense, 10th-best defense, and third-best point differential, all while clearly not playing their best basketball. It’s easy to hit this mini break and think “we’re good where we are” and just coast until the switch needs to be flipped somewhere down the road. 

“I’ve never felt that from the guys,” Mazzulla said. “I think one of the best things about these guys is whether we’ve won or lost they’ve had a desire to get better. And we’ve had games we’ve won where we’ve been pissed after the game. We’ve had halftimes where we’ve been pissed at halftime even though we may be winning. So I think the guys have a really healthy approach toward the process of what goes into it.”

The process is everything to Mazzulla and the Celtics. Focusing on the reads they're supposed to make and the space they're supposed to occupy on the floor will generally lead to more success than failure. Sure, every once in a while a team like Memphis will come in with a weird game plan and it will work even when the process was good, but on most nights things will work in their favor. 

“When you lose it can’t go the other way and it’s like ‘We’re not supposed to lose,’” Mazzulla said. “I think the more we can focus on the process. Are we getting better every single day? What goes into that? Regardless of the result, are we doing the things that are necessary to get better as a team, and I think the guys have a healthy relationship to that.”

They Celtics are still trying to find their defensive process, which is a work in progress. The return of Kristaps Porzingis has changed some things, and the Celtics are trying to hone in on the finer points of balancing his rim protection with trying to limit 3-point attempts. That has especially been evident as bigs like Nikola Vucevic and Jaren Jackson, Jr. have recently torched Boston. 

“I think just individual defenses, in general, you want to get better at,” Mazzulla said. “I think everything (scoring bigs) is time and score and situationally. You go back to when there's times if you have a lead, you want to protect it. You don't want to give up those catch-and-shoot or those over help opportunities. If not, you have to be a little bit more aggressive. So I think it's just a little bit of time and score thing, but at the same time, obviously, we have to get better at our individual defense every day.”

Mazzulla has said he likes where the team is overall. At this point of the season, they have plenty to be happy about, but plenty to work on, which is right where they should be.

“I think we have an understanding of we're playing some good basketball, but we know we can be better. And I think that's a healthy place to be,” Mazzulla recently said. “I like the fact that we're not peaking, because there's a lot of time, and we got to be able to work through those things to be able to do that.”

PAYTON PRITCHARD’S WORK ON DISPLAY

Coaches will always say players should practice at game speed. No one personifies that like Pritchard. Here he is working on some drills with Holiday before practice. 

I’m not trying to take anything from Holiday, but Pritchard’s motor is just always at 100%. I’d say he’s all gas, no brakes, but he can also clearly stop on a dime to change directions. 

It’s just fun to watch the work that goes into the final product. 

“(His rise this season) just kind of happened that way because of his ability to impact the game in different ways,” Mazzulla said. “When you have a guy that can score the ball at all three levels, and his ball pressure, his individual defense, his rebounding has gotten better — when you have a guy like that, it’s just naturally going to happen. So I’m just kind of happy where he’s at and how he’s, one, playing, but two, how the people around him have incorporated to make sure we have that balance.”

FREE POINTS FOR JAYLEN BROWN

Brown is averaging 6.6 free throws per game, two more than last year and 1.5 more than his previous career high. 

“I’m just trying to improve in all facets of my game,” Brown said. “Just all my weaknesses or things that people perceive as weaknesses, just improve on them. Just keep getting better and better. My playmaking, my defense. People think, I don’t know, maybe just because other players don’t really improve. But that’s not me. I’m going to keep getting better ‘til I die.”

He’s shooting 76.2% from the line, which is just a few ticks off his career-best. It’s all leading to an extra 2.1 points per game just at the line this season. 

BOXING FOR BASKETBALL

Videos of Brown going through boxing and martial arts workouts from his Men’s Health shoot have been circulating. Brown says the workouts have been integral to his basketball improvement. 

“I just like trying different things in my training,” he said. “Fighting has always been in my lineage. My grandfather was a fighter, my dad was a fighter. So boxing has always been something that I’ve been into, but more recently I’ve picked up Muay Thai and Tai Chi.  And I’ve been having a lot of fun with that. It’s helped with my body, it’s helped with my mentality, so I look forward to exploring that and learning more about myself through the form of martial arts.”