3 reasons why Celtics’ Game 1 was a Joe Mazzulla masterpiece

BOSTON, MA — Leading a team to the NBA Finals isn't easy, especially as the youngest coach in the NBA. Yet, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has done just that while receiving little credit.

The 35-year-old helped the C's garner a 64-win season and earn the No. 1 overall record in the league. Despite his efforts, Mazzulla wasn't even a finalist for Coach of the Year.

That's never bothered Mazzulla though, as he's more concerned with shutting down the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals. After his squad's 107-89 win in Game 1 on Thursday night, Mazzulla made it clear that he isn't underestimating the Western Conference champions:

“Game management is going to be important. This is a great team,” Mazzulla said in his postgame remarks. “They have a tendency to go on great runs. That's going to happen. You have to be able to manage those with poise and execution, know why those runs are being made, and quickly put a stop to them with high-level execution.”

While Boston's stars get most of the love, Mazzulla deserves some credit too following Game 1. So, here are three reasons why his performance in the series opener was one of his best ever.

Joe Mazzulla's decision to bring Kristaps Porzingis off the bench worked well

Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis was in an interesting predicament. He hadn't played in over a month due to a calf strain, but he was taken off the injury report ahead of Game 1.

Boston was left with two options: either start Porzingis and bring back Boston's go-to starting five or sit him and keep veteran big Al Horford in the lineup.

Ultimately, he delayed Porzingis' start and had him on the bench for just the second time in his entire career. While some might've seen this as a gamble, it paid off for the C's. The Latvian star dropped 20 points (8-for-13 shooting), six rebounds, and three blocks in just 21 minutes of play.

“Yeah, just thought it gave us the best chance to win,” Mazzulla said when asked about having Porzingis on the bench to start. “He was great on both ends of the floor, defensive execution, game plan, playing for a spot in the offensive end, being physical, and making plays on both ends of the floor. So I thought he played great and that's the KP that helped us get to where we are today.”

Mazzulla's lineup decision wasn't a unilateral one. He went to Porzingis for his thoughts on the matter and the first-year Celtic seemed to appreciate that.

“We had a conversation and just came up to me, I know he knew I was going to be fine with whatever, you know, so he just told me, what do you think, like about this, and I said, of course, like, let's do it,” Porzingis recalled in his postgame remarks. “And that's it. Wasn't no big deal and I trust Joe and he trusts me.”

Mazzulla's timeouts were effective and timely

It became a bit of a running joke that Mazzulla never used timeouts. However, that clearly wasn't the case during Game 1.

In fact, he had a particularly significant timeout with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter. Although the Celtics were up by as much as 29 points, the Mavs cut their lead down to eight after a deep triple from star guard Luka Doncic made the score 72-64. This prompted an immediate stoppage from Mazzulla, which ended up working wonders for the C's.

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Out of the timeout, Boston embarked on a 14-2 run that killed the momentum Dallas previously had. Having to overcome another double-digit lead was too much for the Mavs, and head coach Jason Kidd ended up subbing his starters out with just a little more than five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“We just did a great job of responding in real-time after Joe called that timeout,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said during his presser. “They cut it to eight, we came to the bench and talked about it, executed and made plays, and took the lead back up.”

Of course, a timeout in itself isn't going to cool a red-hot opponent down. The Celtics still needed to come out and respond to the barrage. Mazzulla was confident that his team would be ready to recover and mentally lock in:

“I liked the way we handled their run because that's going to happen,” Mazzulla admitted. “You're not going to stop that. You just have to have the poise and the toughness to work through it and I thought our guys did that.”

The Celtics coach trusted his players, and they respected that

For a coach, there's a fine line between letting players figure it out on their own and constantly interrupting the flow of the game to talk some sense into them.

Mazzulla struck the perfect balance during Game 1, as he stopped the game when necessary but ultimately believed in the ability of his guys. This trust is a two-way street, as the Celtics seem to have faith in Mazzulla's poised leadership.

“Joe always gives us the right message, you know what I mean? He himself is very almost—like, he can be emotionless if that's what we need and he can just come in, like, completely even keel and give us the right message of what to focus on,” Porzingis said. “We trust him with his leadership.”

Celtics guard Derrick White also spoke about trust during his postgame press conference and how it plays out on the defensive side of the ball:

“I mean, Joe kind of gives us the freedom to trust our instincts, and then you also know that, like, if someone gets beat, someone's going to have your back,” he stated.

Mazzulla and company will need to continue to have this synergy heading into Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night. Being up 1-0 in the series is nice, but the Celtics know it doesn't guarantee anything.

“We can't be celebrating ourselves,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown said. “Dallas is probably getting ready for the next game right now, so we got to prepare and get ready for the next one, too.”