Joe Mazzulla is just in his second season as Celtics head coach but he has found himself in the franchise record books after Wednesday night. The 35-year-old showed intense emotion on the sidelines as Boston rallied from an eight-point deficit at the end of regulation, leading to a 127-120 win over the Timberwolves in overtime. The victory gives Boston an 18-game home winning streak to open the year at TD Garden, the best mark in franchise history.
Mazzulla and Celtics players reflected on the milestone fondly after Boston improved to an NBA-best 29-8 on the year. Mazzulla made a point to single out the team’s fanbase for their impact on Boston’s home streak.
“So there’s been two times that I’ve actually showed that I have a pulse, and tonight was one of them and it was because of the crowd,” Mazzulla said. “I’m not going to say we’re 18-0 at home without that, and so to me, I talked about this before a little bit, we want to create this identity of playing Celtic basketball because the fans are really smart and they know when we suck and they know when we don’t, and they’ve seen great basketball for a long period of time. So usually if they’re cheering it’s because you’re doing something right, and I think over the course of this season, they’ve seen moments of greatness, they’ve seen moments of Celtic basketball and they’ve responded to that really well and I think that’s had a huge impact on our team.”
BET ANYTHINGGET $250 BONUSESPN BET
21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
Mazzulla is a Rhode Island native who grew up rooting for the Celtics so he’s been able to reflect on fulfilling some of his childhood dreams in this role. That led to him to elaborate on the relationship between the team and its town as he’s seen it over time.
“To me, especially being from here, there’s nothing better than getting the Garden, the crowd to appreciate Celtic basketball,” Mazzulla said. “And so I think the connectivity between us and the identity of the city and the identity of the arena is kind of building something for us, and tonight specifically, even when we did suck, which we did at times, they did a good job of keeping us in it, and I think that’s important to have that relationship with the crowd and with the city.”
The Celtics will next have a chance to extend their home streak on Saturday night when they take on Ime Udoka and the Rockets.
“Any time you get a chance to, to sketch yourself down to history, there’s been a lot of great teams that have played in the Garden and for us to have the best start ever in franchise history, I think that says a lot about the group,” Brown said. “It’s an honor to be in that regard and, let’s keep it going.”
- Highly anticipated sportsbooks like BetMGM Massachusetts, along with Caesars Sportsbook Massachusetts have been live since Spring of 2023. New players can use promo codes like the FanDuel Massachusetts promo code and the DraftKings Massachusetts promo.
