WASHINGTON — Jaylen Brown admitted the Celtics weren’t at their best throughout Friday’s win over the Wizards. They came out flat against one of the worst teams in the East as it took them a while to get their engines going.
So, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla tried to take matters into his own hands — “manipulating the environment” is how he described it. After Brown looked like he was fouled but no whistle, it led to a transition 3-pointer for the Wizards. Mazzulla was furious about the call. He spilled onto the court and asked official Ed Malloy how that wasn’t a foul on Brown, leading to a quick technical foul on Mazzulla from the veteran referee. All of that was intentional, the third-year Celtics coach said.
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“It wasn’t really about energizing the team,” Mazzulla said. “I think it was just manipulating the environment. I thought that was what the environment needed at the time and you just have to make those calls from time-to-time. I thought the team, we were playing pretty good. It wasn’t like I needed to do that. But I thought it was a way to manipulate the environment.”
The Celtics beat the Wizards in one of their uglier performances Friday. There wasn’t much life in the game as Capital One Arena also featured plenty of C’s fans in the stands. But Brown was transparent postgame, saying the White House visit from the day before could’ve affected the team the following day. Brown’s double-double of 31 points, 11 rebounds and five assists led the way Friday.
Regardless, the C’s still gutted out the NBA Cup victory to keep their hopes alive to make it to the knockout stages. There’s still some work ahead, but all that matters from Friday is that they secured the win. Plus they got an emotional Mazzulla as he had to be separated from Malloy by assistants Sam Cassell and Tony Dobbins. His players noticed that, too, which is perhaps the most important factor.
“I think that it was smart just to know that like he has our back no matter what,” Jrue Holiday said. “He was disrespectful in a respectful way, so I think getting that tech just showing us that like, yeah, I’m gonna fight for you guys and then having the crowd behind us even in that situation was big.”
