Little surprise yesterday before the kickoff of the meeting between the Celtics and the Rockets. On the bench, tablet in hand, it was not Joe Mazzulla but Damon Stoudamire who was giving the final instructions. Touched in the eye, Joe Mazzulla could not hold his place and therefore entrusted the former point guard with the task of maintaining Boston’s winning streak. The assistant arrived at the Celtics at the start of last season. Before that, he was the head coach of the Pacific Tigers (NCAA) from 2016 to 2021 and also an assistant to the Grizzlies (2011-2013 and 2015-2016)
Mission accomplished for the Celtics, winners 126-102 of an undecided match for three quarters, and first career victory for Damon Stoudamire as head coach in the NBA. After the meeting, the man nicknamed “Mighty Mouse” returned to the pre-match and the moment when he learned that he was going to have to replace Joe Mazzulla.
“I probably found out about it 10 minutes before the game started. But in a lot of ways, it’s better in the end, to go like this, and to do what we’ve been working on” , did he declare. “We put the game plans in place together within the staff, so everyone knows what we are going to want to do. Joe wasn’t able to coach so I did, but honestly it’s a collaborative effort. Everyone plays their part in such situations. It’s been like that all season (…). For me, it was about going in there and not screwing it up. We were on a good pace. We didn’t shoot in the first half, which was key in my opinion. We then put in those same shots, and we stepped up defensively to get some stops and we started to make the hole.
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to make it easy for him
The Celtics assistant also said he hadn’t had time to tell anyone. No member of his family, not even his mother, who came to visit his son for the holidays and who was nevertheless present at the TD Garden.
“I haven’t done it yet, but I’m sure if I look at my phone there will be a lot of people asking me, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? It’s just that I didn’t know! » (laughs)
The victory took a little time to emerge, but Boston and Damon Stoudamire were able to count on two XXL performances from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, with 39 and 38 points respectively. All within a rather efficient collective. Not enough to spend a quiet evening at the one-night coach, but almost.
“We have a great team, players who know how to do it. It makes your job easier.”, he added. “It’s always a little easier when you have JT and JB on your team. Let’s say it’s not a bad start.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 32 | 37.1 | 47.7 | 35.6 | 86.3 | 1.2 | 6.9 | 8.1 | 4.1 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 30.9 |
| Jaylen Brown | 32 | 35.9 | 49.1 | 33.8 | 79.1 | 1.2 | 6.3 | 7.4 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 26.6 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 29 | 23.6 | 48.1 | 43.7 | 86.3 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 13.6 |
| Marcus Smart | 30 | 33.2 | 43.1 | 34.4 | 78.2 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 7.4 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 11.4 |
| Al Horford | 25 | 31.0 | 50.8 | 45.1 | 62.5 | 1.0 | 5.4 | 6.3 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 10.1 |
| Derrick White | 34 | 25.9 | 44.1 | 38.2 | 85.7 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 9.9 |
| Grant Williams | 33 | 28.0 | 51.7 | 43.7 | 82.6 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 9.2 |
| Robert Williams | 4 | 17.8 | 72.2 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 6.8 |
| Sam Hauser | 34 | 15.6 | 46.0 | 41.8 | 77.8 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 6.4 |
| Blake Griffin | 15 | 15.3 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 71.4 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 5.4 |
| Payton Pritchard | 21 | 10.5 | 40.0 | 34.0 | 70.0 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 4.4 |
| Luke Kornet | 29 | 12.8 | 66.7 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 4.0 |
| 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 |
