NBA Notebook: JJ Redick all over Joe Mazzulla in their first Celtics-Lakers matchup

Joe Mazzulla and JJ Redick sat down at Auerbach Center last fall before the Celtics' 2023-24 championship run began for one of the more fascinating basketball discussions you'll ever listen to. During it, they recounted how Brad Stevens, Austin Ainge and Mazzulla nearly courted Redick to the Celtics' staff before the previous season. The team had suspended Ime Udoka and Will Hardy departed to Utah. Redick, realizing the season was only days away, couldn't commit to such a major decision quickly and went on to spend last year with ESPN before the Lakers head coaching job opened. 

"Joe got the job on Friday and we played golf Sunday morning and we talked about potentially joining the Celtics staff," Redick said pre-game on Thursday. "It was in those early stages of knowing I wanted to coach but not sure what the timing would look like. We stayed in touch. There was another conversation around joining the staff later, and the last two years, podcast included, and calling games and getting to see him. But particularly last year, we talked quite a bit on text after games and what not. When I was going through this process, he along with a few other coaches in the NBA were really helpful. Not just in preparing for an interview, but just really helping me understand what this was and what it required.”

Redick accepted it despite some concerns from those around him about the pressure of the Lakers job that already exists heightened by LeBron James' presence. That the team drafted James' son only added to the questions about how Redick could make his basketball imprint in LA while navigating the locker room aspect of the job. Redick needed to get LeBron and Bronny on the floor together at the beginning of the year, find some balance between his NBA and G-League time, then things flowed fairly smoothly. The Lakers sit above the play-in line where they've lived in recent seasons at 24-18, a hair above the cross-town rival Clippers and in their first meeting on Thursday, Redick defeated Mazzulla. 

Arriving at the arena minutes before holding court with the media, Redick sported only a backpack while already wearing his coaching outfit. He fielded questions at ease, holding the microphone and crossing his leg, at times turning into podcast mode. When the conversation turned toward the game plan, Redick intently knew how the Celtics would attack them and stood prepared for how they would slow Boston's three-point offense and manipulate their hunt for mismatches. 

"They're gonna get up threes," Redick said. "We have to be willing to live with some stuff tonight. If we try to take away everything, we're gonna give up everything ... we have to take care of the basketball and keep them off the offensive glass ... their guards do a really good job, Pritchard, Holiday, White, of crashing. They don't just crash through the elbows, they're crashing, crashing ... they're really good at figuring out where the weak link is and doing that over and over and over again. We’re gonna have to be prepared not only to guard the first action, but then to guard the ISO. It’s gonna come in a number of ways. We have to be good with that, and we’re expecting cross matches. They typically let Jrue roam. Who’s Porzingis gonna guard? And I didn’t think when Houston cross-matched, we didn’t do a good job of recognizing that early in the (last) game."

That's exactly how the Celtics played it, sending Kristaps Porziņģis at Austin Reaves repeatedly during the first quarter and toying with him, holding the ball above his head and pouring in hook shots to score 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting. Yet that offensive approach left Boston slow-paced while teammates stood around. Jayson Tatum took only three shots in the first quarter and didn't score, finding little rhythm for the rest of the night as the Celtics fell behind by 11. The Lakers took advantage as that slipped into Boston's defensive effort, shooting 50% from the field and from three while matching their attempts in the latter. The game proved uncompetitive from that point on. 

Before it started, Mazzulla sounded more willing to praise his counterpart than any other opponent he's lined up against through his three seasons coaching Boston. He praised Redick for transitioning from the media into the hot seat of coaching an NBA team. Redick also noticed the rare gesture he received from the Celtics coach, who texted him in recent weeks to check in after Redick's rental house burned down in the Los Angeles fires. He noted how that contrasted against former Boston assistant Charles Lee's attempt to sneak a hug with Mazzulla and enter the Celtics' locker room in the Charlotte back-to-back earlier this season, which drew admonishment from Mazzulla. 

"(Redick) was sitting across from this table and decided to enter the arena," Mazzulla said. "I wish more people would do that, and so the fact that he did that and wanted to be in the arena shows the competitor that he is, and I think he's just really smart. He has a great awareness about what he's great at and what he wants to work on. He's willing to attack those things. We've had a good relationship. So I've learned a lot from him as a coach and really as a person, and as a player. A lot of the stuff that he's done as a player, you replicate with some of the guys that we have. He's a good example of that." 

Redick's press conferences feature verbiage similar to Mazzulla's. They both discuss crash rate, an internal analytic stat that assesses their team's offensive rebounding. They carefully manage the turnover rate and value possessions above all else. Unlike Mazzulla, though, Redick needed to adapt to personnel that played inside more than on the perimeter with the Lakers. Los Angeles attempts only 39.5% of its shots from three, 25th in the league and likely far below where Redick would ideally position them. They rank 13th in offense and 22nd in defense, with a negative net rating, a sign that they've posted a better record than their play would predict. They've improved into January, now 13th in offense and 11th defensively with a +2.2 net rating this month. Redick made his imprint by moving away from D'Angelo Russell in the starting lineup earlier this season before the Lakers traded him for Dorian Finney-Smith, briefly a former Redick teammate in Dallas who helped LA pull off its switching attack on Thursday. Redick poked at Finney-Smith, a player he continued to praise into his retirement, after the win by saying his two three-point attempts looked like he never shot the ball before. 

It's unclear how Redick's career would've progressed differently had he joined the Celtics. Boston needed help on its staff badly in 2023, especially when Damon Stoudamire departed before the playoffs to take Georgia Tech's job. The impact of coaching staff losses also showed this season between Lee and Jeff Van Gundy, who joined Ty Lue in drawing up a stellar game plan for the Clippers to nearly defeat the Celtics on Wednesday with most of their regular contributors out. Redick's intimate knowledge of how Boston likes to play is part of his normal routine, looking ahead to every coach and their game plan tendencies. But seeing Mazzulla and Redick share the sideline on Thursday, knowing the depth of their basketball conversations and shared values, proved to be a real moment over one year after their podcast at the Auerbach Center. 

"I don't know how close he was (to joining the staff)," Mazzulla said. "We had a couple talks about it and definitely was interested in it, but I don't know as far as where he was in that process. You learn from each other. He's an analytical mind, he thinks the game, he can think on his feet and he's definitely someone you can learn from." 

Here's what else happened around the NBA this week...

Boston (32-14): Jaden Springer gave the Celtics 20 minutes and four steals against the Clippers after the Celtics knocked out the Warriors in San Francisco by 40 points. Pretty good start to the trip, right? Losing to the Lakers by 21 points on Thursday took almost all the air out of the start of the west coast swing for Boston, especially after Jaylen Brown's back-to-back turnovers late in the Clippers game nearly gave the game away to LA without Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac and others. Derrick White, who fell to a ghastly 37.4% FG (30.1% 3PT) in January after Thursday's loss bounced back with 23 points in a win over the Mavericks on 7-of-16 shooting. Jayson Tatum will start in the All-Star Game for the fifth straight season. Jaylen Brown finished fifth in fan and media voting among forwards, and sixth in the player vote. 

Brooklyn (14-32): Ben Simmons revealed he nearly retired after his latest back surgery last season. Kevin Durant looked back at his Nets tenure in his return to Brooklyn and blamed dysfunction and injuries for the big three not working out. The Nets retired Vince Carter's No. 15 uniform on Saturday, joining Jason Kidd, Julius Erving and four others. 

Charlotte (12-30): LaMelo Ball did not receive a starting spot on the East's all-star roster despite finishing first in the fan vote. Ball fell to third in the player vote and seventh among media members to finish third behind starters Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson. Ball will now need to receive a selection from the coaches in a crowded back court, which could prove difficult due to Charlotte's record and coaches normally leaning toward winners. Ball is averaging 29.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 7.5 APG while shooting 41.9% from the field. Brandon Miller will miss the rest of the season after undergoing wrist surgery. He averaged 21.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG and 3.6 APG while shooting 40.3% from the field in his second season. 

Chicago (19-27): Have received trade calls about Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević leading up to next month's trade deadline, according to ESPN. The Warriors are among the teams, as previously reported, who could make a move for Vučević, who's 34 this season, makes $20 million before the final season of his contract, worth $21.5 million next year.

Cleveland (36-9): Slipping from their historic pace with losses in 5-of-8 following a 33-4 start. The 76ers stunned them on Friday night without Joel Embiid and Paul George after the Rockets, Thunder and Pacers defeated them in recent weeks. They still have a 4.5 game edge over the Celtics in the standings, but Dean Wade (knee) left the Philadelphia game and did not return while Caris LeVert (wrist), Evan Mobley (calf) and Isaac Okoro (shoulder) all sat out the loss. Kenny Atkinson will coach next month's All-Star Game. 

Dallas (24-22): Lost to the Celtics on Saturday for the first time since the NBA Finals with Luka Dončić, Dereck Lively II, Naji Marshall and Dante Exum out. Lively suffered a stress fracture in his right ankle and will likely miss 2-3 months, according to ESPN. Maxi Kleber left Saturday's loss with a broken right foot and is out indefinitely. They're devastating losses for a team trying to stay above the play-in line in the crowded West. Dallas has lost 6-of-8, but defeated the Thunder on Thursday behind Irving's 24.

Golden State (22-23): Suffered a scary-looking loss to the Celtics at home with Draymond Green out at least week, Jonathan Kuminga down and Steph Curry flanked by deep bench players unprepared to hit shots over Boston's defense. They lost to the Kings later in the week before the depth approach worked against Chicago, with seven Warriors scoring double-figures. Curry will fittingly start next month's All Star Game in San Francisco alongside Shai-GIlgeous-Alexander, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokić with Golden State far from the league's standard ahead of the quickly approaching trade deadline they badly need to take advantage of. The Athletic discussed their options.

Houston (30-14): Ime Udoka returns to Boston on Monday for the second time since his suspension and firing from the Celtics with little success against his former team. The Rockets simply had little chance to stand up to last year's juggernaut Celtics, losing 145-113 at TD Garden and 116-107 in Houston. Earlier this month, Boston defeated the undermanned Houston team on the road, 109-86, but at home will likely see Tari Eason and Amen Thompson back in the lineup, two of the league's top wing stoppers. They're still down Jabari Smith Jr., who broke his hand at shootaround prior to the last Celtics game. He's not expected to undergo surgery on the injury. They've won 8-of-10 since then. 

Clippers (25-19): Managed the rare four games in five days slate this week by sitting Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac, Kris Dunn and Norman Powell against the Celtics on Wednesday and nearly winning with a strong defensive scheme drawn up by former Celtic consultant and current Clippers coach Jeff Van Gundy. Kevin Porter Jr., Derrick Jones Jr. and Amir Coffey combined for 79 points and LA forced overtime against Boston before beating the Wizards handily in the second half of the back-to-back. They've won 5-of-7 to stay sixth in the west. 

Lakers (25-18): LeBron James looked stellar, scoring 20 points with 14 rebounds and six assists in a blowout win over the Celtics where he threw down two giant dunks that brought the house down. Joe Mazzulla lamented the Lakers' transition attack devastating Boston, while Mazzulla's friend and similar basketball mind JJ Redick prepared almost perfectly to slow the Celtics' three-point and mismatch-targeting offensive attack. LA has now won 5-of-6, and familiar pressure on the team's front office to add talent looms. 

Memphis (31-15): Reportedly staying in touch with the Heat about a potential Jimmy Butler trade despite signals that Butler would prefer not to end up in Memphis. It would seemingly make sense for both sides, the Grizzlies offloading some future salary in a deal and making a Jaren Jackson Jr. extension easier with Butler playing on a shorter-term deal. If Butler doesn't want to stay in Memphis beyond this year, it would make the commitment to him even shorter term. But the Grizzlies would have to know his commitment would supersede what he's shown in Miami this season. Unlikely without a new deal. The Grizzlies have won five straight games, including four where they scored 129+. 

Miami (22-22): Suspended Jimmy Butler again for two games over a "continued pattern of disregard of team rules, insubordinate conduct and conduct detrimental to the team." Butler reportedly missed the team's flight to Milwaukee on Wednesday for their Thursday game at the Bucks after he played in only three games, averaging 13.0 PPG, since his previous infraction. Erik Spoelstra tried to move past the drama again as it appears Butler has played his final game with the Heat, but it seemed that way last time. Butler is scheduled to return to the team on Monday. 

"The point that I made to our team is get used to it," Spoelstra said. "Get over it. This is the NBA life; this is the life we chose. If you think it's going to be predictable, you're really mistaken."

Milwaukee (25-17): Arrived in Milwaukee roughly two hours before their game against the Heat after a winter storm stranded them in New Orleans for days. The Bucks won, overcoming a double-digit first-quarter deficit to score their fifth straight victory and eighth over their last nine. Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 28.4 PPG, 12.8 RPG and 6.0 APG while shooting 58.7% shooting from the field. Bill Simmons and Kevin O'Connor discussed how they could get involved in a larger potential Jimmy Butler deal, with either Bradley Beal or Zach LaVine landing in Milwaukee, while Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and others would end up in Miami and Houston. There has reportedly been no discussions about Beal going to the Bucks, according to Chris Haynes. 

Minnesota (24-21): Scored quality wins over the Mavericks and Nuggets after Anthony Edwards' air-ball three attempt couldn't steal a win from the Grizzlies, the Wolves' fourth loss over five games to that point. Edwards fell to 0-for-12 in his career on game-tying or go-ahead shots at the end of the game and is shooting just over 28% on clutch threes this season. Donte DiVincenzo will miss at least three weeks with a left big toe injury, but will not require surgery. 

Orlando (24-23): Franz Wagner returned from missing 20 games with a torn oblique and scored 20 points in a blowout loss to the Trail Blazers. It marked only the sixth time he and Paolo Banchero played together this season, the Magic losing 13-of-20 with Wagner out after starting 16-9. Jalen Suggs (back), who missed the last 10 games, and Goga Bitadze participated in Saturday's shootaround before Orlando faced the Pistons. Suggs went down with a scary looking back spasm incident that turned out to be a disc issue. 

Philadelphia (17-27): Moved within 1.0 game of the postseason picture in the east behind Chicago with important wins over the Cavaliers and Bulls without Joel Embiid. Paul George scored 30 points in his second game back from his latest ailment, while Shams Charania reported growing frustration within Philadelphia about the uncertainty night-to-night over whether Embiid will be available. He's missed the last 10 games with a combination of foot and knee injuries. Guerschon Yabusele, one of the best stories in the league this year, is averaging 13.6 PPG on 51.3% shooting. 

Phoenix (23-21): Jimmy Butler joining the Suns feels like a matter of how rather than if at this point. Phoenix traded its 2031 first-rounder this week to the Jazz in exchange for a likely 2025 Cavs selection alongside the worst of Cleveland, Minnesota and Utah's picks in 2027 and 2029. That allows the Suns to trade six years of picks and swaps in a potential Butler trade, which remains contingent on Bradley Beal waiving his no-trade clause. The Heat have reportedly expressed little interest in taking Beal back in a trade, which could force as many as 4-5 teams entering the equation to make the money and value work. With Butler's situation going further sideways with Miami by the day and Beal's time with the Suns almost inevitably coming to an end, some kind of resolution to both situations looks inevitable by the Feb. 6 deadline. 

San Antonio (20-23): Split a pair of games with the Pacers in Paris in a homecoming for Victor Wembanyama, who scored 30 points with 11 rebounds, six assists and five blocks in Thursday's win before Tyrese Haliburton stole the show on Saturday. Spurs CEO R.C. Buford told The Athletic that head coach Gregg Popovich remains without a timeline to return to his coaching duties after suffering a mild stroke in November. It'll depend on how his rehab progresses, Buford said.