BOSTON — Despite the Celtics needing some fortune on their side, they advance to the knockout stages of the NBA’s in-season tournament. They blew out the Bulls by 27 points, while the Nets beat the Raptors, allowing the C’s to win East Group C. They’ll face the Pacers on the road in the quarterfinals.
Despite the victory and tourney advancement, the Celtics weren’t exactly thrilled with the process of the win. Sure, there were some nice moments as they needed to blow out the Bulls in the first place. But because of the point differential tiebreaker rules, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla kept the pressure on the Bulls even with the Celtics boasting a commanding lead.
Just like Jayson Tatum said earlier, Jaylen Brown isn’t fond of the tiebreaker rules. The Celtics played their starters deep into the fourth quarter, risking injury even though they were already up huge. Mazzulla also employed a “Hack-a-Drummond” strategy, intentionally following the Bulls’ Andre Drummond on back-to-back possessions to get him to the free throw line.
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“It’s tough because that’s just not how the game is supposed to be played,” Brown said. “One, you gotta respect your opponents and two, it’s just a weird setup. We understand the rules, but if I was on the other team, I would be upset as well when we were doing the Hack-a-Drummond in the middle of the fourth quarter. But our coaching staff made the decision and we stick with it.”
Jrue Holiday had similar thoughts when speaking after the game. He specifically didn’t like running up the score for point differential purposes. The Magic did the same thing to the Celtics last week in the final moments of the blowout. It’s why the Magic had a plus-22 point differential in the standings, necessitating the Celtics to beat the Bulls by at least 23 points.
But that’s life in the NBA’s inaugural in-season tourney. Perhaps there’s a chance the league looks to change up that rule considering some of the backlash from the players. Regardless, it led to interesting scenarios around the league Tuesday. For example, the Warriors needed to beat the Kings by at least 12 points to advance to the knockout stages, so a win alone wasn’t enough for Golden State.
Going forward, the Celtics won’t have to worry about point differentials come the knockout stages. At this point in the tournament, it’s just single elimination, starting with next week’s quarterfinals. The C’s will travel to Indiana for the game, and beyond that, they’ll go to Las Vegas if they get to the semifinals.
“Maybe there’s some things I don’t agree with, but also know that there’s rules and we also want to win,” Holiday said. “We want to make the tournament and have the best seed that we can. So I don’t like it, but I understand.”
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