If Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla focused all of his efforts on helping his starting unit gel in the early portion of the season, no one would have batted an eye.
He’s doing the opposite, though.
The Celtics’ starting lineup, admittedly, doesn’t exactly need any help. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White have continued to roll on the top unit, while Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have been seamless additions. That’s why Boston is 4-0, with those five combining to serve as the NBA’s most effective unit early in the season.
It’s what happens when those guys need a breather that has caught Mazzulla’s attention.
Boston hasn’t played a starter in the fourth quarter in each of its last two games. That opened up extended opportunities for the bench, with their first crack going pretty poorly. Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and company looked disjointed in Monday’s matchup against the Washington Wizards. It was so bad, that Mazzulla organized a film session for just the reserves, where he was the only coach in the room.
“It was cool to get the opportunity, for the head coach to take the time out to want to work with us and want us to be so attentive to the details, even down to whoever may be the last person on the bench,” Lamar Stevens said, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “It’s just the way the Celtics play, who we are, and it’s just our identity, 1-15, so I think it’s just a great representation of who he is and who we’re trying to be.”
The results? Boston’s second unit responded in a big way, outscoring the Indiana Pacers by 13 points in the final quarter, as all eight bench players played and scored.
“It was one of my favorite things to do (when I was an assistant coach),” Mazzulla said of working with the bench, per Himmelsbach. “That unit has a hard job, because everything is up in the air. They don’t know when they’re playing, when they’re getting their shots, who they’re playing against. Is it in a lead or is it in a deficit? Is it in meaningful minutes or ones that just don’t really matter? They have a really hard job, and I think the more we can be on the same page about their value regardless of what’s going on, I think it’s important for our team.”
Those improvements have been just another example of how Boston has thrived early in the season, and fixed the only real complaint anyone could have had.
It’s the NBA, so things will crop up as we inch toward the new year, but the Celtics’ connectivity has stood out thus far.
