Joe Mazzulla had to reach down his coaching bag to send a strong message to the Boston Celtics after getting bludgeoned by the Oklahoma City Thunder Tuesday night. Barely anything that happened in the game was acceptable for Mazzulla, who felt he had to remind his players about what it takes to win it all in a tough league like the NBA (via Jay King of The Athletic).
Joe Mazzulla said he told the Celtics the same thing he did after they blasted the Suns: “whether you win or lose, there’s a level of humility that you have to have in the NBA because those things happen. And effort and getting outplayed is unacceptable.”
It's almost unfathomable how the Celtics lost in the manner that they did against the Thunder. Boston is one of the legitimate NBA title contenders in the 2022-23 season. They faced an Oklahoma City Thunder squad that was six games below .500 going into the matchup and also missing its best player, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sidelined by a non-COVID illness. Yet, the Thunder crushed the Celtics to the tune of a 150-117 score.
Mazzulla could just chuck it up to being one of those days, but the Celtics' performance, especially on the defensive end of the floor versus the Thunder should have tripped up more alarms for Boston. For one, the Celtics gave up 150 points a game after they surrendered 123 points in a loss to the Denver Nuggets in Mile High City last Sunday.
Up ahead for the Celtics is a meeting with the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
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