After Joel Embiid the day before in Detroit, it’s the turn of Joe Mazzulla to suffer the lightning of opponents for a lack of fair play. This night, the Boston coach asked for a “challenge” with less than four minutes remaining while his players were leading by 27 points against the Raptors. And that’s the kind of practice that doesn’t work…
“With a 30-point lead, you don’t have to take any challenge for anything… You win, there are three minutes left… You don’t have to disrespect us like that” loose Dennis Schroder Boston Globe.
Asked about this “challenge”, Darko Rajakovic preferred to kick in: “ No comment! »
A way to respect your players
As for Mazzulla, alerted by his players for this “challenge” which concerned a ball thrown into touch, touched or not, by Oshae Brissett, he does not understand the controversy.
“I don’t know if it was a lack of respect or if it was a mistake to argue in this situation”, replies Mazzullawho won this “challenge”. “I don’t have a strong opinion. In the end, my responsibility is first to my players and to respect the game. We’ve been in a situation before where we don’t take the last shot, and let the time run out. This is what we do all the time. But with three and a half minutes to go, with a group of guys giving it their all, I think it’s my responsibility to my players first. It was an opportunity for me to empower the players, to let them know that I am coaching them and that these minutes are as important to me as the start of the match. This is what I told my players: I will always put them first. »
An opinion shared by Sam Hauser, used to being on the ground in these moments. “He treats these minutes like the other minutes of the match,” confirms Hauser. “No matter who’s on the field, he treats it like it’s really, really important. And I think that’s important for all of us. If we are on the ground, we want him to support us. And I think he does. »
