TORONTO — With 3:39 left in the first quarter of the Boston Celtics’ second preseason game, Toronto Raptors big man Jonathan Mogbo snagged an offensive rebound. He kicked the ball out to Chucky Hepburn, who drove, dished it off, and got it back a couple of passes later for a top-of-the-key three. But he missed. And Toronto got the ball back again.
Mogbo pushed through Garza, and Alijah Martin bodied Hugo Gonzalez as the ball trickled back out to Ja’Kobe Walter.
Joe Mazzulla wasn’t happy.
Celtics are embracing the Joe Mazzulla coaching style
He looked to his bench, and in seconds, there were five Celtics at the scorer’s table. Mazzulla took out every single player who was on the court for the mishap.
“That was the emphasis going into halftime, is that we wasn't playing to our standard,” Anfernee Simons said in the locker room after the game. “So, that was just Joe being Joe.
“Making it a point that we're going to go out there and play to a standard. If not, then guys are going to come out. So, that time he took everybody out because we wasn't rebounding it well, and that was pretty much it.”
That five-man group—Neemias Queta, Ron Harper Jr., Hugo Gonzalez, Luka Garza, and Anfernee Simons—had just checked in at the 4:07 mark. All five of them at once. They spent just over a minute on the floor before getting pulled.
It wasn’t the only moment of the sort, either.
Early in the second frame, Mazzulla looked to the bench after a Simons turnover, and Gonzalez checked in for him moments later. Baylor Scheierman has earned some tough love through the first two preseason games. Hugo Gonzalez seemingly got yanked at one point in Toronto.
No one is exempt.
“He's just pushing you to be the best version of yourself,” Simons said. “That's all I see it as, is that he wants the best for everybody, and he's gonna push you to help to the standard that he feels like you need to be at. And so, everybody respects him.
“Everybody respects the way he coaches, and we know he can get fiery, but he wants to bring that out of us.”
Chris Boucher was part of the relief unit late in the first quarter. He came on when Mazzulla pulled the plug after just a minute of action from the aforementioned five-man group. But he’s not perfect either.
And Mazzulla is more than willing to let him know.
“Just more intensity. Play harder,” Boucher said of Mazzulla’s short leash in Toronto. “I think he knows what I can do, so when I slack or when I seem like I'm not going 100%, it's kind of like a wake-up call. And like I said, I've told him every time, if he sees something that I'm not doing, tell me. I want him to keep doing that.
“It's gonna make me better, it's gonna make the team better, and it's something that we all have to kind of get adjusted to.”
But Mazzulla doesn’t just bench guys and let them squirm on the bench.
Late in the game, Mazzulla called Boucher over after a play just to give him a high-five and hype him up. After Gonzales got yanked for losing a rebounding battle, he went back in less than two minutes later.
Even Scheierman, who struggled on Friday night, earned a high-five from Mazzulla after a good close-out wasn’t enough to stop a Raptors three from falling.
It’s all about the give-and-take.
Mazzulla didn't view his subs as a yanking. He just wanted fresh legs. "More just trying to push the tempo. It had nothing to do with a quick leash or anything like that," he said. "Just trying different things, being able to push tempo. I thought we did a good job of that. So, just have to be able to force tempo and just get different guys in there doing a bunch of different stuff. So, the style they want to play is difficult, so that's all it was.”
But even if it was all a coincidence, his coaching habits are plain as day.
The Celtics head coach has spent most of the preseason pacing the sideline, ready to intervene when necessary. Sometimes, he turns his palms to the sky in agony or makes a quick substitution. Other times, he’s amped up and screaming in players' faces or sprinting onto the court to help up a guy who just dove onto the ground.
There are many sides to Mazzulla’s process. Toronto showed off a few. And the players are fully on board.