BOSTON — The Boston Celtics are not themselves right now. A win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night provided a glimmer of hope in a sea of disappointment, but that glimmer was quickly scrubbed away on Saturday. They blew an ugly game to the Atlanta Hawks, losing 119-115 in overtime.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Celtics should have been able to play the free-throw game and walk off with a victory. But they botched it. Jrue Holiday turned the ball over, Jayson Tatum missed a free throw, and then Holiday fouled Trae Young, allowing him to tie the game with two shots at the charity stripe.
All in all, it was a gross display of basketball. A complete and utter mess that saw the Celtics lose their fourth game out of their last seven.
But in classic Joe Mazzulla fashion, he brought a smile to the post-game podium.
“There's no fear,” Mazzulla said when asked if he’s afraid this loss will demoralize his team. “ I'm actually more excited at this juncture of the season than I was at the beginning.”
Of course, the follow-up to that was simple: Why? Why would Mazzulla be excited about what they are going through? Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe pressed on, and he drew a straightforward response.
“Because, as I said, this is part of it. It's the fun part.,” Mazzulla said. “And again, we talk about what we've been able to accomplish as a team in the past, and if we're going to be on a journey together for however long that is, two years, whatever the case may be, this is what you sign up for. This is the most fun part that you have to have.
“And as long as we're in it, that's how we're going to attack it. So, I didn't mean to cut off your question, but there's zero fear whatsoever. If anything, there's excitement. And this is the journey. So, sign me up for this.”
That wasn’t where the “fun” ended.
Losses like Saturday night’s are backbreakers. Boston was inches away from a victory. Inches away from their first two-game win streak in nearly two weeks. And they let it slip through their fingers.
What does a response look like? How do the Celtics avoid the very fear Mazzulla urged is non-existent?
The smiley head coach went on a mini tangent to explain:
“You get the spirits up by having honest communication, but at the same time, we got to play another game. We don't have time--- I mean, I guess we have time, we have a long flight, but we just don't have the time to worry about it. We'll learn from it. There's an accountability thing. There's communication in there.
“But, like I said, I guess my question when I'm always in situations like this is, 'What do you expect?' Do you expect that when you do something as a team, you just expect it to just go well for you all the time? I always ask myself that in situations like this,” Mazzulla began. “I use some expletives before that, but I'm like, 'What the --- do you expect? Did you expect we were just going to have another 64-win season, and we were just never going to make mistakes or, if you're going to bring back, if you have the same team and a group of guys that are doing something together, that we're going to show our ass from time to time? And not you personally, but like, what do we expect? What'd you expect? And that's why it's a part of the journey. And so, we just don't have time to worry about that.
“We need to fix it. We have to fix the details. And we will. And we'll do that. But what keeps me one, and kind of what I'm explaining to you is I trust the character and the mindset and the preparation of our team. And over the course of a long stretch, whether that's till All-Star break, till season, till the playoffs, till next year, I don't know, but there's just the utmost trust in how they carry themselves.
“So, there's not a group of people that I would rather go through something difficult together with. So again, sign me up. It doesn't mean I'm happy. But this is the thought process about how we're going to go about it.
It was a long, winding road of an answer, but it summed up the Celtics’, or at least Mazzulla’s, disposition perfectly: Why worry?
There are only so many games in a season. The Celtics play again on Monday night, as they will begin a four-game road trip with a game against the Golden State Warriors.
He admitted the Celtics need to be better. He said they weren’t good enough on Saturday night. But freaking out over a loss would do nothing but spiral into more losses.
Boston knows the standard they have created for themselves. And right now, they aren’t living up to that. But few seasons are perfect, and as close as last year was, that was the exception, not the rule.
Now, it’s all about the response. And there’s nobody Mazzulla would rather respond with than these Celtics.