Celtics (21-7) at Lakers (11-15) Game #29 12/13/22

[liam]

I was conflicted about this game once the Fakers took a 10 point lead after our collapse...part of me wanted us to lose to put some pressure on the team and on Joe to really examine themselves as to how they could have let such a mediocre team beat us after we had been leading by 15. In a way winning would seem to be papering over cracks that they need to really address, like how their transition defense completely fell apart once they started missing 3s and when they started to get distracted by the officiating - I know the officiating sucked, but newsflash - it sucks most nights, and to be fair it usually sucks for both teams. GWill started the rot by whining to the referees about a foul they called on him when he was guarding AD and then he became a passenger with his pouty petulant body language till he started to make shots late in the 4th.

But they do deserve credit for getting themselves back on track after falling behind by 10 and forcing overtime. Tatum deserves MOM for his performance, he kept us in the game and is the reason we didn't lose this game. He wouldn't let us lose it.

But they have plenty of work and I don't think they should be happy with their performance. I'm really getting tired of seeing GWill complaining to the refs, he 100% has a rep with them now I'm sure.

But for us it's a win. So TPs for all!!

Well said. I also have completely mixed feelings about how this game turned out. The Celts had a 20-point lead that disappeared in a flurry of ineptitude by players and head coach. For the sake of the long run benefit, Celts actually needed to lose this game and for it to hurt and hurt bad. The players and Mazulla have to admit to some bad habits that will cost them a chance at a title - again.
Winning this game gives a false sense of security and rewards bad basketball.

Sometimes you have to win ugly.

[bello_man09]

I just noticed that Brown had 15 rebounds for the game.

he  boarding well during the come back....he  didn't really have an offensive possession till he hit that 3. 

[liam]

On the way back to Boston!!!

Goodnight all!

[Ed Monix]

Tatum looks at least 2 inches taller than LeBron.

Two inches is a bit of an exaggeration lol

But Tatum is definitely taller. I have a feeling that he’s close to 6’10” in shoes.

[Rikibellevie]

I was conflicted about this game once the Fakers took a 10 point lead after our collapse...part of me wanted us to lose to put some pressure on the team and on Joe to really examine themselves as to how they could have let such a mediocre team beat us after we had been leading by 15. In a way winning would seem to be papering over cracks that they need to really address, like how their transition defense completely fell apart once they started missing 3s and when they started to get distracted by the officiating - I know the officiating sucked, but newsflash - it sucks most nights, and to be fair it usually sucks for both teams. GWill started the rot by whining to the referees about a foul they called on him when he was guarding AD and then he became a passenger with his pouty petulant body language till he started to make shots late in the 4th.

But they do deserve credit for getting themselves back on track after falling behind by 10 and forcing overtime. Tatum deserves MOM for his performance, he kept us in the game and is the reason we didn't lose this game. He wouldn't let us lose it.

But they have plenty of work and I don't think they should be happy with their performance. I'm really getting tired of seeing GWill complaining to the refs, he 100% has a rep with them now I'm sure.

But for us it's a win. So TPs for all!!

Well said. I also have completely mixed feelings about how this game turned out. The Celts had a 20-point lead that disappeared in a flurry of ineptitude by players and head coach. For the sake of the long run benefit, Celts actually needed to lose this game and for it to hurt and hurt bad. The players and Mazulla have to admit to some bad habits that will cost them a chance at a title - again.
Winning this game gives a false sense of security and rewards bad basketball.

Personnaly I don't think it is an overconfidence the problem, as showed the Warriors match
 More of a mental complex ag the team that exposed us when we were one step from the top. For the rest we have been pretty solid since 10 moonth now. The lost ag clippers is a mix about fatigue, playing a favorite at almost 100 % at home and sequel from the warriors match. Good not to loose 3 in a row esp ag the fakers.

This road trip is still very good, we faced great teams, come back 4-2 with a win ag our rivals Nets and Lakers. And à good base to question and solve some problems. Playoffs are still far away.
 

[trickybilly]

Confession time. I turned off with 3 minutes to go in disgust.

What a ridiculous win. What a huge huge huge win.

[Birdman]

Yesssssss

[ozgod]

Gary Washburn asked Joe Mazz about the fact that he just "watched everything go down in the 4th like it was going to be sink or swim...you were going to let your guys implode or respond. You didn't call timeout..." at this point Joe responded saying "I called two" and Gary continued saying "ok you did call one or two...how did you deal with that stretch where you guys didn't score for 6 minutes?"

Joe responded saying "I just thought it was a great opportunity for our guys to grow, as long as we remain poised...we're going to be in that situation and we're going to just have to learn to get through it...our guys did a great job of building an awareness of why we ended up in that stretch and most of the time in those situations it's self-inflicted...and if we can clean those things up and execute in the future we will be able to handle being down 5 with 45 seconds left and know exactly what we have to do to get through it."

Gary then asked "is this the most important win of the year, given you were 13 down with 3 minutes left" and Joe responded "No...I just think we get so used to winning one way at the beginning of the year, we have to get used to winning different ways...every win is important, every game is important, you have to figure out different ways to win...we've won by blowing teams out, we've won by now coming back, we've won by executing in late game and so we can't get used to, there's only one way to win. This trip has taught us a lot about what we need to do to win games in different ways."

Abby then asked "what did you say going into overtime" and Joe responded "I didn't say anything...the guys, it's their team, they did a great job taking ownership, they did a great job embracing the moment, they communicated...the way we managed the game in the last minute, and a half, was what gave our guys life to work together and execute...it was all them."

I linked to that part of the interview below.

https://youtu.be/uiDTU519O6E?t=33

He's definitely not a "my way or the highway, I'm going to tell you what to do and you're going to do it" type coach. He empowers his players to take charge and to learn even if it means putting them in difficult moments, like that fourth quarter stretch where we the fans were probably throwing things at the TV as they turned the ball over and made bad decisions and the Fakers roared back. Time will tell if that approach will work. It brings to mind the old question of how important is a coach to the actual game - is he more of a guy that provides the infrastructure and guidance for the players and gets them all pointing in the same direction, or is he someone who actively tries to influence a game. Kind of like an NFL coach vs a soccer coach in terms of influence over the players once they are playing. An NFL coach is actively involved in the game, calling plays, subbing players in and out, while a soccer coach is basically a cheerleader once the team starts playing because it's all so adlib.

Joe's prepared to stick to his coaching philosophy and convictions despite pressure from the media and fans, that's for sure. Gotta give him credit for that 

[knuckleballer]

Confession time. I turned off with 3 minutes to go in disgust.

What a ridiculous win. What a huge huge huge win.

I turned it off with about 4 minutes to go down 12 and went to bed.  Just got up and am shocked they won.  Wow!  What a late comeback.  The road trip feels a lot better now I know they won this game.

Now let’s get Horford back and back to winning.  And Rob back too.

[Somebody]

Gary Washburn asked Joe Mazz about the fact that he just "watched everything go down in the 4th like it was going to be sink or swim...you were going to let your guys implode or respond. You didn't call timeout..." at this point Joe responded saying "I called two" and Gary continued saying "ok you did call one or two...how did you deal with that stretch where you guys didn't score for 6 minutes?"

Joe responded saying "I just thought it was a great opportunity for our guys to grow, as long as we remain poised...we're going to be in that situation and we're going to just have to learn to get through it...our guys did a great job of building an awareness of why we ended up in that stretch and most of the time in those situations it's self-inflicted...and if we can clean those things up and execute in the future we will be able to handle being down 5 with 45 seconds left and know exactly what we have to do to get through it."

Gary then asked "is this the most important win of the year, given you were 13 down with 3 minutes left" and Joe responded "No...I just think we get so used to winning one way at the beginning of the year, we have to get used to winning different ways...every win is important, every game is important, you have to figure out different ways to win...we've won by blowing teams out, we've won by now coming back, we've won by executing in late game and so we can't get used to, there's only one way to win. This trip has taught us a lot about what we need to do to win games in different ways."

Abby then asked "what did you say going into overtime" and Joe responded "I didn't say anything...the guys, it's their team, they did a great job taking ownership, they did a great job embracing the moment, they communicated...the way we managed the game in the last minute, and a half, was what gave our guys life to work together and execute...it was all them."

I linked to that part of the interview below.

https://youtu.be/uiDTU519O6E?t=33

He's definitely not a "my way or the highway, I'm going to tell you what to do and you're going to do it" type coach. He empowers his players to take charge and to learn even if it means putting them in difficult moments, like that fourth quarter stretch where we the fans were probably throwing things at the TV as they turned the ball over and made bad decisions and the Fakers roared back. Time will tell if that approach will work. It brings to mind the old question of how important is a coach to the actual game - is he more of a guy that provides the infrastructure and guidance for the players and gets them all pointing in the same direction, or is he someone who actively tries to influence a game. Kind of like an NFL coach vs a soccer coach in terms of influence over the players once they are playing. An NFL coach is actively involved in the game, calling plays, subbing players in and out, while a soccer coach is basically a cheerleader once the team starts playing because it's all so adlib.

Joe's prepared to stick to his coaching philosophy and convictions despite pressure from the media and fans, that's for sure. Gotta give him credit for that 

Sounds like Mourinho! You might be shaking your head, but the way they coach an attack are quite similar: less automatisms and rigid structures in favour of players figuring things out themselves (obviously with guidance from the coaches, they're not going to tell the players to go out there and hoop).

In all seriousness, I'm glad that we have him as our coach - our chances of winning an NBA title have increased with our coaching change this summer.

[jambr380]

Went to bed at halftime, confident we were going to win. Not sure I would have been able to handle the 2nd half, but psyched we were able to pull it out. Glad they get a couple of days to rest after a tough road trip.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

You know who has always given Anthony Davis some problems?

Robert Williams.

[slamtheking]

Went to bed at halftime, confident we were going to win. Not sure I would have been able to handle the 2nd half, but psyched we were able to pull it out. Glad they get a couple of days to rest after a tough road trip.

same thing here -- went to bed a couple of minutes into the third quarter thinking the game was well in hand only to hear they needed OT to win.  glad they won but didn't start my day off as well as I had hoped.

think if I watched the whole game I wouldn't have slept a wink from getting too worked up about the meltdown

[Goldstar88]

Gary Washburn asked Joe Mazz about the fact that he just "watched everything go down in the 4th like it was going to be sink or swim...you were going to let your guys implode or respond. You didn't call timeout..." at this point Joe responded saying "I called two" and Gary continued saying "ok you did call one or two...how did you deal with that stretch where you guys didn't score for 6 minutes?"

Joe responded saying "I just thought it was a great opportunity for our guys to grow, as long as we remain poised...we're going to be in that situation and we're going to just have to learn to get through it...our guys did a great job of building an awareness of why we ended up in that stretch and most of the time in those situations it's self-inflicted...and if we can clean those things up and execute in the future we will be able to handle being down 5 with 45 seconds left and know exactly what we have to do to get through it."

Gary then asked "is this the most important win of the year, given you were 13 down with 3 minutes left" and Joe responded "No...I just think we get so used to winning one way at the beginning of the year, we have to get used to winning different ways...every win is important, every game is important, you have to figure out different ways to win...we've won by blowing teams out, we've won by now coming back, we've won by executing in late game and so we can't get used to, there's only one way to win. This trip has taught us a lot about what we need to do to win games in different ways."

Abby then asked "what did you say going into overtime" and Joe responded "I didn't say anything...the guys, it's their team, they did a great job taking ownership, they did a great job embracing the moment, they communicated...the way we managed the game in the last minute, and a half, was what gave our guys life to work together and execute...it was all them."

I linked to that part of the interview below.

https://youtu.be/uiDTU519O6E?t=33

He's definitely not a "my way or the highway, I'm going to tell you what to do and you're going to do it" type coach. He empowers his players to take charge and to learn even if it means putting them in difficult moments, like that fourth quarter stretch where we the fans were probably throwing things at the TV as they turned the ball over and made bad decisions and the Fakers roared back. Time will tell if that approach will work. It brings to mind the old question of how important is a coach to the actual game - is he more of a guy that provides the infrastructure and guidance for the players and gets them all pointing in the same direction, or is he someone who actively tries to influence a game. Kind of like an NFL coach vs a soccer coach in terms of influence over the players once they are playing. An NFL coach is actively involved in the game, calling plays, subbing players in and out, while a soccer coach is basically a cheerleader once the team starts playing because it's all so adlib.

Joe's prepared to stick to his coaching philosophy and convictions despite pressure from the media and fans, that's for sure. Gotta give him credit for that 

I don’t think you can coach every team that way, but do think it’s the right way to coach this Celtics squad. Feel like his players respect him for taking that approach. It shows that he trusts them and they’ve responded by winning a lot of basketball games. Mazzula is not a coach that is stuck in his ways. He will adjust the starting lineup based on matchups and seems to be better at making in game adjustments than Udoka was. Will be interesting to see what he does with the starting lineup when both Horford and Timelord are able to play.

[angryguy77]

Kerr calls a TO to halt runs for a team that is full of championship winning vets. Joe's philosophy on TO's is just sucks. It's counter productive and has cost us this season, and almost again last night.

The team won despite his coaching.