The Celtics have already secured the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference for weeks now and on Wednesday they won their 60th game, confirming their home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. With the regular season coming to a close, it would be natural for them to ease up a bit.
However, the Celtics are determined not to become complacent with the playoffs approaching. During the shootaround on Friday, Joe Mazzulla emphasized the importance of not taking the remaining games for granted.
Mazzulla stressed the importance of seizing every opportunity to win, saying, “Nothing else matters except taking advantage of every opportunity to win.”
During this final stretch, Mazzulla is trying to find a balance. He aims to give his regular players enough rest while also striving to win games with the playoffs in mind. On Friday, he went to extremes by pulling his regulars in the fourth quarter and relying on a lineup consisting entirely of bench players. Despite losing a 19-point lead to a desperate Kings team, Mazzulla stood his ground and his decision paid off with a thrilling 101-100 victory.
The Celtics, featuring a lineup of Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Xavier Tillman, Oshae Brissett, and Svi Mykhailiuk, with additional minutes for Luke Kornet and rookie Jordan Walsh, managed to hold on. Tillman’s crucial basket with seven seconds left secured the Celtics' narrow win, demonstrating Mazzulla’s unwavering confidence in his bench players.
Mazzulla expressed his satisfaction with the intense environment, stating, “This is fun. This is awesome. Couldn’t simulate a better environment of stress, pressure, chaos. It’s a perfect environment to execute. That’s why when those guys are in, you hold them to the same standard you hold everybody else to. I thought they did a great job just making plays. …
“All those guys have played a significant role in winning games the entire season. When guys have been injured, they stepped up. Everybody on that floor has started a game for us this year I think, or played significant, significant minutes. So it’s just a testament to them, and whoever is on the floor, I always feel like we have a chance to win.”
With starters Jaylen Brown and Derrick White sidelined, Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points and Jayson Tatum added 17, helping the Celtics establish a comfortable double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, which eventually became tenuous.
The Kings, desperate for wins to secure a top-six seed in the West and avoid the play-in tournament, made a strong comeback. Despite the Celtics holding a 19-point lead with 6:06 remaining, they suddenly struggled to score, allowing De’Aaron Fox, who finished with 40 points, and the Kings’ starters to mount a rally. The Celtics went without scoring for nearly four minutes, and Fox’s layup with 2:58 left brought the lead down to nine, prompting Mazzulla to call a timeout.
Despite the challenging situation, there was no sense of panic in the huddle.
Tillman described Mazzulla’s message as straightforward, saying, “Nothing crazy, just keep managing the game.”
However, the Kings continued their pursuit. Fox and Harrison Barnes made back-to-back 3-pointers, reducing the lead to four. Subsequently, Fox scored five consecutive points, including a 3-pointer with 27 seconds remaining, giving the Kings a one-point lead. The Celtics chose not to call a timeout as Pritchard quickly advanced the ball, but they struggled to find a good shot. Hauser, who had shot 1-for-18 on Friday, was blocked. After a frantic sequence, the ball ended up with Tillman, who dribbled into the paint and made a one-handed floater with seven seconds left in the game.
"I knew it was good as soon as I released it," Tillman said. "It was great."
The Kings called a timeout before Fox missed a pull-up jumper, and then Keegan Murray missed two putback attempts. He may have been fouled on the second one, but the Celtics escaped.
The Celtics’ reserve unit has not experienced high-pressure, late-game situations like that together, and it clearly showed. However, they definitely valued this unusual chance to develop. Tillman praised Pritchard for keeping them relaxed. Even though Hauser missed nearly every shot he took, he still secured some crucial rebounds. The Celtics, admittedly, were experimenting with some things throughout the game. But they made enough plays to hold on against a talented Kings group that’s playing for their playoff lives.
"I enjoyed it," Pritchard said. "They had something they’re fighting for. I know our seeding is pretty locked up, but every opportunity we have, every game we have – I don’t like losing, I don’t think anybody likes losing, so we’re trying to win. And obviously we’re working on things but winning is the biggest priority always."
Same with Mazzulla, who never flinched as the Kings made their run. He was never tempted to put the starters back in. He was rewarded.
"I feel like it’s important," Mazzulla said. "Those guys are no different than anybody else. They’ve won games for us in the past, they’ve started games for us. Everybody gets treated to the same level, the highest level, and you have to be able to win games with different guys. And I felt like it was important in that particular moment that they earned the right to do whatever it took to win the game, because of the work they put in. So I had no problem doing that."
