Every Celtics playoff loss in recent years turns into a massive breakdown of Joe Mazzulla, his style and strategy, and his adjustments, or lack thereof. He’s a coach who’s stubborn to a fault, believes highly in analytics, and has a firm confidence in his team, what he’s built, and that it will work over the course of a series.
He hasn’t been shaken by disappointing or uncharacteristic results, sometimes to a fault, as evidence in last year’s Knicks series. It’s not to say Joe doesn’t make adjustments, but they’re usually subtle, and he hasn’t proven to be the kind of coach to go completely off script or break glass in case of an emergency.
Mazzulla has racked up a 34-18 playoff record, a 7-2 playoff series record, and he has a championship ring to show for it. It’s safe to say he knows what he’s doing a lot better than the coaches on the couch. But sure enough, after the Celtics’ frustrating Game 2 loss at home to the 76ers, the pitchforks were out again, calling for sweeping changes. That’s not happening.
Mazzulla believes in process over results
By now, we should know that Joe is all about process over results. He believes in the process that has won his team 50+ games in each of his four seasons and has led to deep playoff success, including a title. This Celtics team is a lot better than the 76ers team on the other side of the court, and there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel because of one fluky outcome.
And if we’re being honest, that’s all that Game 2 was. The Celtics created a lot of good looks, but shot just 13-50 from three-point range. Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, and the rest of the supporting cast were brutal and didn’t give the Jays enough help on offense.
This has been an elite offense all season long, and to change things up after one off-night would be absurd. The same is true on the defensive end. The Celtics have had an elite defense all year, mostly playing drop coverage with Neemias Queta anchoring the ship.Â
Philly hasn’t been a great shooting team all season, but they caught fire on Tuesday night, and their guards obliterated the drop with pull-up threes. The result was unfortunate, but again, one hot night - just like we saw two years ago in the Game 2 loss to the Heat - is no reason to panic and change things up.
The Celtics just need to execute better
Besides, the Game 2 issues came down to execution more than anything else. Neemy and the bigs can be more aggressive and responsive in the drop and do a better job of contesting pull-ups. On that note, the guards and perimeter defenders can do a better job fighting through screens and contesting from behind.
The same is true on offense. Just because the three-ball wasn’t falling doesn’t mean the Celtics should abandon their game plan. If you shoot 26% on threes and your opponent shoots 49%, that’s going to be tough to overcome, regardless of how you change things up. This is just a matter of executing at a higher level and knocking down shots.
Small adjustments will happen, but nothing massive
And on top of all that, what major adjustments do fans actually want to see? It’s not like Queta and Vooch are suddenly going to start switching everything on defense. It’s not like Sam Hauser, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard should pass up open threes.
As I said, there are subtle things that they can try. Maybe we’ll see Queta guarding a wing player like Oubre so that Boston can switch when their center screens for Tyrese Maxey or VJ Edgecombe, or Philly will be forced to use a weaker screener, which should make life easier on the rest of the Celtics’ defenders.
I think they could possibly give more of a look to Luka Garza and Baylor Scheierman as well. Both have proven themselves all season long and could be in line for a bump in minutes. I think they can get more creative with lineups as well, maybe playing Jayson Tatum at the five, or playing both guards with the Jays more. But overall, there isn’t some giant adjustment the team is going to make after 84 games.Â
They are what they are, for better or worse. Their process and style are what got them here, and if water finds its level, it’s going to take them through the rest of this series, and hopefully far beyond.
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