BOSTON — With the Celtics getting nearly a week between the start of the second round and the East Finals, they took a few well-deserved days off. But with the East Finals set to open Tuesday in Boston — against either the Knicks or Pacers — they’re ramping up their practices between now and then.
As C’s coach Joe Mazzulla described it, his team must “ramp up and re-enter the fight and create your intensity and your own toughness.” That’s what Sunday’s practice was about, he said.
Interestingly, Mazzulla is also about the mental aspect of the playoffs as much as the physical, which is partly why he’s always down for his team to go through some adversity. Jrue Holiday said the Celtics go along with the craziness because that’s just a part of who Mazzulla is as a person and coach.
“He’s crazy,” Holiday said. “Anybody who knows Joe knows he’s crazy, and that’s pretty much it. But I think it’s, I don’t know, maybe controlled madness. It’s definitely his way of preparing us and I feel like preparing himself and I think it’s been working.”
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The process has seemingly worked for the Celtics all season as they’ve dominated the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs. They’ll take on the Knicks or Pacers in the next round with the added benefit that the Celtics have been waiting for their next opponent. On the flip side, either New York or Indiana will be playing two games after a crucial Game 7, which is set for 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
Mazzulla said he thinks the Celtics have done a solid job between the balance of rest and upping their intensity. The C’s were in a similar spot last series after they beat the Heat in five games. They waited for the Cavs to overcome the Magic in seven games. So they also had roughly a week of rest between the first and second round. But the C’s didn’t have much trouble ramping up their play.
The Celtics will also again be heavy favorites to overcome whoever comes out on the other side of the bracket. And regardless of who it is, they’ll look to stay sharp as they go deeper into their playoff run.
“He honestly makes you lock in because it’s so different, you definitely have to pay attention to the things that he says,” Holiday said. “Sometimes he might talk kind of fast and he might talk through something and you kind of be like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, slow down.’ But I think really locking in like that helps me because it really makes me go back and be like, ‘Alright, what did he say? This is what we want to do.’”
