Joe Mazzulla details ‘unique’ challenge of guarding unlikely opponent

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics had to battle on Saturday night. The 2-11 Toronto Raptors were in town, but they didn’t play like a 2-11 team. They fought. Hard. It took a wild Jayson Tatum buzzer-beater to finally put the dinosaurs to rest, and that was in spite of Jakob Poeltl’s career night.

The Austrian big man was unstoppable for the Raptors. Every time he got two feet in the paint, he was automatic, flicking the ball up and in time and time again over the heads of Boston’s defenders. At times, it looked like there was nothing the Celtics could do to stop him.

He may not sound like the scariest player to go up against, but Joe Mazzulla sees things differently.

Jakob Poeltl is unstoppable

After the game, Mazzulla explained the challenge of facing off against Poeltl, as it puts the Celtics in a “unique” bind.

“Well, it's a unique situation, right?” Mazzulla explained. “Because if you're in a certain coverage, you're going to give that shot up. If you're in a different coverage, you're more susceptible to offensive rebounds. So, they're a tricky matchup because of those things, and when it's a one or two-possession game, that shot is probably the highest-valued shot that you can get on the court on both teams because he's so good at it. 

“So, it comes down to some of the other stuff. And so we just had to go back and forth. You saw, we went with Sam and Luke, played one coverage, got it to a certain point, and then went back to Neemi and Al and played a different coverage. So, you're just constantly [assessing] a cost-benefit analysis to each possession and try to make it work.”

Poeltl finished the night with a career-high 35 points to go along with 12 rebounds. He was unconscious shooting the ball, going 16-of-19 on shots that were almost exclusively taken within five feet of the basket.

Mazzulla had nothing but praise for the big man post-game.

“He's a bear down there, though,” Mazzulla said. “He's good. I mean, he's good. It's one of those situations [where], if you play one coverage, he's gonna shoot that. If you play a different one, he's gonna bury you on the glass. So he puts teams in a bind. He's a good player.”

Poeltl may not be the first player most fans think of when the word “unstoppable” comes to mind, but his proficiency at the flick shot down low can make him a nightmare for teams to deal with.

And Mazzulla knows that.