The end-of-year celebrations are an opportunity to take stock of the start of the season since the franchises have already played a third of the regular season. After just over two months of competition, the results can only be positive for Boston despite some turbulence encountered in recent days.
President of the Celtics, Brad Stevens has therefore expressed his satisfaction, while Boston and Milwaukee will compete for first place in the Eastern Conference tonight. At the forefront of the celebrations, there is of course the successful transplant of Joe Mazzulla. After the Ime Udoka affair, the management opted for an internal solution, and this choice has so far proved to be judicious.
Joe Mazzulla, a successful bet
” It’s really good… Every 20 games you coach in the NBA, you get better and better. Even when it comes back to the beginning of training camp, about the leadership, the organization, the way he was received… He got on well with everyone. He is very open to people. To the different ideas they have. Maybe too open sometimes, right? Because there’s a million things happening to him at the same time. But he is very good and his team is very good.
The shock was however real when it was necessary to dismiss Ime Udoka, NBA finalist for his rookie year, from his functions. But Joe Mazzulla managed to quickly trigger a new dynamic and his team followed. Sign of his successful work, he has already won the title of coach of the month for November.
“It’s something we probably don’t talk about enough. I think it was a unique thing for everyone and the staff picked up the slack and did their job for the win. That’s what we have to do. Everyone in this franchise has a role, we all have to play it as best we can to give ourselves a chance to win,” added Brad Stevens.
The state of mind and team cohesion put to the test
Like Joe Mazzulla, Brad Stevens had been propelled into the deep end in the NBA at the head of one of the most prestigious franchises in the league. He is therefore well placed to know what his successor may feel, especially following the series of five defeats in six games recently crossed by Boston.
“Coaching in any league or at any level is tough, but coaching in the NBA with 82 games and inevitable ups and downs is a really tough job. So I want Joe Mazzulla and our team to know that I’m aware of that. I lived it. When you have a three-game downturn, like it is now, where we haven’t played very well, or a two-week downturn, know that I’ve seen a lot of good and great teams get through this. And so the key is how to answer it? And how to collectively maintain the right approach while trying to make small tweaks and course corrections.”
While waiting for the first steps of Danilo Gallinari, the manager welcomed the contribution of Malcolm Brogdon, and in particular his ability to be productive and regular off the bench. He also highlighted the state of mind and cohesion that emerge from this 2022-2023 workforce.
“Even though we haven’t always hung banners, we’ve had a lot of good teams and they’ve come close to doing that. This one has as much cohesion and a spirit of camaraderie as all those I have worked with at the professional level. I think they really like each other. It’s a group with a very good personality. I see it in a lot of things, when the guys have a tough game, a tough day, there’s a lot of support between them, and I like that.”, he confided. “I think our top players are doing a really good job of making sure everyone feels like that, and feels appreciated, and that’s a good thing.”
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 31 | 37.1 | 47.1 | 35.4 | 85.8 | 1.2 | 6.9 | 8.1 | 4.1 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 30.5 |
| Jaylen Brown | 31 | 35.9 | 48.8 | 32.9 | 80.7 | 1.2 | 6.3 | 7.5 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 26.5 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 28 | 23.8 | 48.2 | 44.3 | 85.9 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 13.7 |
| Marcus Smart | 29 | 33.3 | 43.0 | 34.4 | 77.4 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 7.3 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 11.6 |
| Al Horford | 24 | 31.1 | 50.5 | 44.8 | 62.5 | 1.0 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 10.0 |
| Derrick White | 33 | 25.8 | 43.6 | 37.6 | 86.6 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 9.9 |
| Grant Williams | 32 | 28.1 | 51.8 | 43.0 | 81.8 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 9.2 |
| Robert Williams | 3 | 19.1 | 71.4 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 7.3 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 7.0 |
| Sam Hauser | 33 | 15.9 | 45.9 | 41.6 | 77.8 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 6.4 |
| Blake Griffin | 14 | 15.9 | 50.9 | 34.8 | 71.4 | 1.1 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 5.6 |
| Payton Pritchard | 20 | 10.9 | 38.6 | 34.0 | 70.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 4.4 |
| Luke Kornet | 28 | 13.1 | 66.2 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 4.1 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 1 | 8.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| noah vonleh | 20 | 8.0 | 45.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
| Jd Davison | 3 | 2.8 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| justin jackson | 13 | 4.8 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
