Joe Mazzulla normally avoids lambasting his team publicly. So when he acknowledged the Boston Celtics did not play as hard as the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1, the comment packed some punch, even if the truth of his statement was evident to anyone who watched the game.
The Celtics head coach did not like the way Boston competed while losing to Los Angeles, which was missing LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Zooming out further, Mazzulla did not like the way the Celtics were playing around that time. They were still winning most games, but near the end of a busy schedule, falling shy of their standards set.
“We’re playing poor stretches of basketball and we’re not playing well,” Mazzulla said postgame. “And we sucked tonight.”
Though unsatisfied, Mazzulla didn’t want to dwell on the problems. Even as he shared his frustration, he considered the letdown an opportunity for his team. He said bad stretches of basketball happen.
“And we can’t sit here and act like we’re too entitled for it to happen to us,” Mazzulla said. “It happens. It’s a matter of how we respond to it, and can we work through it. It’s constant daily choices, daily habits that you have to commit to every single day.
“To think we’re not going to go through difficult times during an 82-game NBA season is not the right way to look at it. So am I pissed about losing? Yes. But am I ecstatic about the opportunity for us to grow as a team? I’m even happier about that.”
As it turns out, Mazzulla had reason to be ecstatic. His team’s best basketball was nearby. Since that ugly loss to the Lakers, when Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell had their way, the Celtics have 17 wins in 19 games with a net rating of 19.1. The two losses in the stretch were memorable, but the majority of the wins have been thrashings. In a regular season shaping up as one of the best in a storied franchise history, the Celtics have reached another level lately.
The numbers speak for themselves. Since the Lakers loss:
1. The Celtics have beaten opponents by an average of 18.4 points per game. Thirteen of the 17 wins have come by double digits, including two wins by at least 50 points. The rest of the NBA has just three 50-point wins all season. (The Celtics also own a third such win, but it came on Nov. 1.)
2. Jaylen Brown is the only Boston starter shooting less than 40 percent on 3-point attempts. And he has hit a respectable 38 percent of his long-distance tries during this stretch. Jayson Tatum (40.9 percent), Derrick White (41.9 percent), Jrue Holiday (51.6 percent) and Kristaps Porziņģis (46.4 percent) have all been sizzling from deep. And opponents can’t relax against the Celtics’ second unit because Payton Pritchard (39.5 percent), Sam Hauser (47.4 percent) and Al Horford (41.4 percent) have all been at or near 40 percent as well.
3. As a team, the Celtics have led the league in 3-point attempts (42.3 per game) while also topping the league in 3-point accuracy (41.8 percent). They have made 17.7 3-pointers per game, which is nearly three more than the second-place Oklahoma City Thunder.
How hot have the Celtics been? They became the first team in NBA history to make 20 3-pointers in four straight games while combining to sink 91 3-pointers during wins against the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons. The rush of triples has put Boston, currently averaging 16.6 made 3-pointers per game, within shooting distance (get it?) of the NBA record owned by the 2020-21 Jazz (16.7 per game).
4. The Celtics have scored 127 points per 100 possessions, nearly seven points better than the second-ranked Lakers. The difference between Boston and Los Angeles (6.6 points) is greater than the Lakers and 16th-ranked Minnesota. And the Celtics haven’t ignored defense. They rank second during this stretch, just a hair behind the league-leading Timberwolves.
5. Some of the on-off stats have just been silly. During these 19 games, the Celtics…
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