At the third quarter at Memphis, head coach Joe Mazzulla began experimenting for more than seven minutes. Perhaps he was buying time for tomorrow’s back-to-back games between Boston and Charlotte. Perhaps he was testing the limits of his second unit by removing the training wheels. More likely, he did it as a form of motivation on a night when he thought the opposition team played better. Mazzulla lost his stars in a game that oscillated between a decisive victory and a close call.
With 7:10 remaining and the Celtics up 3, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Al Horford hockey-subbed for Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. Two minutes later, Neemias Queta replaced Kristaps Porzingis (noticeably leapfrogging Luke Kornet on the depth chart for the night) and played his first minutes of the regular season.
“I was looking to develop another identity, to be able to play basketball without those guys,” Mazzulla said after the game.
The Celtics had a three-point lead at halftime after getting it as high as 10 in the second half. And in their first five minutes of the second half, never really made an headway to dominate the depleted Grizzlies. Memphis’ physicality pushed Boston’s stars out of their sweet spots after the Celtics dominated the paint early. So, Mazzulla started pushing buttons.
“I didn’t think we were playing very well, so I wanted to find a lineup that could go on a run for us on the first night of a back-to-back,” Mazzulla said. “I didn’t want the minutes to be too high. I knew we were going to finish the game with them, so I just thought it was an opportunity to find some better rhythm, find a better lineup, and looked to go on a little bit of a run there.”
The Celtics bench plus White played the Grizzlies even, 11-to-11. Their only points from the field came from three-pointers from White, Hauser, and Pritchard. However, in the bigger context of the season and Mazzulla’s relationship with his players, the move to bench his starters speaks louder than the results on the floor.
“He’s a real competitor,” Porzingis said of an angry Mazzulla during a timeout. “He has an edge to him. He wants to win everything. He wants to be the best. He wants to push us to be the best. He definitely showed some emotion and we needed that in that moment.”
Thirteen games in the season, he’s gained the trust of his bench, whether that was holding a film session particularly with them or challenging a call during a blowout. In his post-game presser, he didn’t call out any of his stars specifically, but actions speak louder than words. Instead, he held them accountable and benched them.
Every team has unique demands and experiences that must be tailored to them. In reference to his side’s abysmal performance despite the victory, Mazzulla said, “It’s easy to say you want to be a certain type of team and then it gets harder and harder to live that way.” “For us, the bar is really high. We won’t always live up to the lofty standards that the guys in the locker room set for themselves. I don’t have to like it when a game goes the way it does; I can understand why it happens occasionally.
