With the Celtics leading by 18 points and just 2:58 remaining in regulation, Frank Vogel waved the white flag to pull his Suns starters by calling timeout. A common occurrence during these timeout sequences is a player still trying to get a shot up after the whistle is blown. It’s also normal to see an opposing player try to contest or block said shot attempts. However, rarely, if ever would you see a head coach take part in a block attempt. Thursday night proved to be an exception on that front as Joe Mazzulla contested Royce O’Neale’s shot after the whistle to the delight of TD Garden.
Boston’s coach explained his mentality after the Celtics 127-112 win.
“I saw a guy going in to try to get a shot,” Mazzulla said. “He hadn’t made one, and I didn’t want him to feel good about himself going to the bench. That’s the bench rule. Guys don’t shoot shots in front of our bench to go back to their bench to feel good about themselves. If I’m going to ask the guys to contest, staff has to do the same.”
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To his credit, Mazzulla was dead on about O’Neale, who struggled through an 0-of-7 shooting night against Boston, including 0-of-5 from 3-point range. The 35-year-old Celtics coach has battled for loose balls on the sidelines amid dead balls but took things a step further in Boston’s fourth straight win Thursday night. He doesn’t care if it rubbed anyone the wrong way either.
“I mean — there’s a dead ball,” Mazzulla said. “I did it last year. We’ve done it multiple times. I mean, I don’t care. At the end of the day, it’s about the mindset and approach that we bring in. It’s within the rules of the game.”
With Mazzulla trying to instill that intensity among his players, he tried to set the example with his own actions.
“It’s about just setting the tone,” Mazzulla said. “It’s that. So one of my biggest pet peeves is just thinking that a guy’s just going to get a free shot, and it’s just not the way it works. And if we’re going to hold our team to the standard, then hold the staff to the same thing. So there’s been times where we’ve missed it and I’ve held the staff accountable to it, and you’ve got to do the best job you can of not doing it.”
Boston’s players have clearly bought into that mentality under Mazzulla, having won 15 of their last 17 games with a top-3 defense. Upon being asked about the sequence after he game, Jayson Tatum couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s who Joe is,” Tatum said. “So when he did it, I wasn’t caught off guard. I expect him or one of the coaches to do that. Gotta love Joe for Joe.”
