There is something different about the Boston Celtics this season.
The Celtics are not only 22-6 to start the campaign, but Boston is putting together winning performances without having to rely on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown at the top of the leaderboard game in and game out.
Tatum and Brown are still the go-to players on the court but with the supporting cast of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis as well as bench players Al Horford, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard, the pressure is off the duo to be on every game.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has made a point of endorsing the play of Tatum and Brown even after somewhat lackluster games.
“It’s a little bit of changing the narrative of what value is and what success looks like. For such a long time in the NBA, value is how many shots did you get and how many points did you score?” Mazzulla said, per The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. “Very few times do you have guys like Jaylen and Jayson welcome two other superstars (Holiday and Porzingis) and then empower Derrick, who should be an All-Star. So what I really want to do is change the lens of what value and success look like.”
Mazzulla added: “I think they’re way more valuable than they get credit for, because of their ability to be great teammates. And that’s not talked about or clicked on enough. The fact that one of those two guys could take 8-10 shots and keep playing hard on defense, to me that’s just as valuable as giving them the ball every time and scoring 40.”
The culture in Boston hasn’t changed, but the need for Tatum or Brown to take over games has and both have bought in.
“On this team, it’s clear that I don’t need to score 30 points a game,” Brown said after the Celtics’ 114-97 win over the Orlando Magic. “That would be great, but we’ve got a lot of guys that can put the ball in the cup that are playing well.”
As the Celtics prepare for a matchup with their rivals the Los Angeles Lakers, Mazzulla confirmed to Himmelsbach that he doesn’t have any concerns regarding the season.
