Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla hits Immanuel Quickley with NSFW message after celebration

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is the kind of coach that doesn't take crap from others, both from his players and from his opponents. On Wednesday night preseason action against the Toronto Raptors, Mazzulla did not take too kindly to some showboating from guard Immanuel Quickley.

With less than four minutes remaining in the second quarter, RJ Barrett pushed the ball in transition against the Celtics and found a wide-open Quickley in the corner. The Raptors guard then pulled the trigger on a triple while standing in front of the Boston bench and drilled it after almost certainly hearing some jeers from the Celtics. Quickley then taunted the bench with a phone call celebration as Mazzulla called timeout and chastised the Raptors guard, telling him, non-respectfully, to keep quiet.

“Shut the f**k up,” Mazzulla screamed.

It is preseason, so this may have contributed to Mazzulla's more violent reaction towards Quickley's taunts. The Celtics head coach must be thinking that the Raptors guard is out of his mind considering that it's exhibition season and it's silly to be taunting others when these games don't count towards teams' win-loss records quite yet.

Whatever the case may be, it's Mazzulla and the Celtics that had the last laugh on Wednesday against the Raptors. Some of the Celtics' starters played regular-season minutes (Derrick White played 35 and Payton Pritchard played 32), while two other starters also crossed the 30-minute mark for Toronto (Brandon Ingram and Quickley). In the end, it was the Celtics that pulled out a 110-108 victory, improving to 2-1 in the preseason.

Quickley finished with 14 points, four rebounds, and six assists, although he did shoot a dreadful 3-14 from the field. Xavier Tillman Sr. stole the show for Boston, nailing a game-winning floater with 0.8 left on the clock.

Celtics look to survive without Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum is making plenty of strides in his recovery from a ruptured Achilles, but there are no indications that the Celtics want to bring him back this year.

With the Celtics in the middle of a gap year, there will be greater opportunity for the likes of White, Pritchard, and Jaylen Brown as they look to keep Boston afloat especially after they lost a few key contributors this past offseason.

White was excellent on Wednesday, scoring 33 on 10-23 shooting, while Pritchard, despite shooting a ghastly 1-11 from the field, did pitch in with 10 assists. As things stand, the Celtics look like a fringe playoff team in the East, although bigger breakouts from Pritchard or White could cement them as a lower-end playoff team.