BOSTON — In a similar situation one year ago, Joe Mazzulla used sarcasm to express his point of view.
At the time, the Boston Celtics were coming off a stunning Game 1 loss to the New York Knicks. In that second-round game, the Celtics missed a pile of open shots while the Knicks made enough clutch offensive plays to pull off a big comeback victory at TD Garden.
Advertisement
“So they made them?” Mazzulla said the next day at practice, back in May 2025. “Man, what a novel idea. That’s a novel concept, huh? Just make ’em when you’re open?”
Whatever Mazzulla thought about the rest of the Celtics’ performance that day, his messaging about the shooting variance overshadowed it. Based on his attitude on the topic, he clearly believed that the Celtics’ poor shooting — and the Knicks’ good shooting — cost his team the game. When a follow-up query arrived, urging him to answer the initial question he had ignored, he said he already had.
“Just make ’em,” Mazzulla said.
Mazzulla took a decidedly different approach Wednesday after Boston again landed on the wrong side of the “make-or-miss league” scale. During a 111-97 Game 2 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, the Celtics had their sixth-worst 3-point percentage of the season (26 percent) while the 76ers had their third-best (48.7 percent). Even so, Mazzulla emphasized that he didn’t pin the entire loss on shot-making or missing.
“I think at the end of the day we’ve just got to focus on the process of what we play,” Mazzulla said. “I kind of said it yesterday, I hope it didn’t come off that way — it wasn’t just a product of knocking down shots. I think I said a lot more than that. I think it started with a lot of the stuff that we can control.”
Mazzulla proceeded to tick off several areas his team could have handled better.
“If you take a look at the end of the first quarter, we didn’t close the quarter very well,” Mazzulla said. “We were up 26-13 and we ended the quarter 28-25 and give up offensive rebounds and live-ball turnovers at the end. We have a chance to get to 2-for-1, we don’t get it. The middle of the second, there was a stretch there where we gave up a free-throw rebound. … Losing a quarter of 37-26 is tough to overcome in a playoff game against a team like that, and I think that stemmed from some missed shots, but also things that we can be better at and things that we can control on the margins, live-ball turnovers, offensive rebounds and things of that nature.”
Advertisement
That’s a lot different than “just make ’em.” Maybe Mazzulla thought the two games weren’t identical. Maybe he was just in a mood a year ago. Maybe, looking back, he didn’t like the way he handled the news conference at that time. Maybe he believed his brief rant about the shooting made it seem as if he didn’t focus on other areas with his team. Rest assured, he’s not just telling the Celtics in the film room, “The one thing you need to do next time is make shots.”
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
Whatever the reason for his shift in tone this time, Mazzulla said his team’s issues in Game 2 stemmed from more than just the significant outside shooting discrepancy. He pointed out the Celtics could have tightened up their ballhandling after committing three more turnovers than they did in the series opener. Though he liked how many offensive rebounds they tracked down, he thought they didn’t always do a good job executing on their second-chance opportunities. He said they missed “six to eight tendency things” from a failure to execute the game plan.
Mazzulla also explained some ways Boston could have done a better job on VJ Edgecombe, who made six of his 10 3-point attempts. While others wondered whether the Celtics should switch pick-and-roll coverages after Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey combined for 59 points in the 76ers’ barrage of 19 3-pointers, Mazzulla ticked off several mistakes that led to Edgecombe’s big night.
Long before Maxey’s closing run ruined them, the Celtics had a chance to limit the damage of a second-quarter 76ers surge. Instead, after Kelly Oubre Jr. missed a free-throw attempt with about a minute left in the quarter, the Celtics let Dominick Barlow chase down the offensive rebound. And with that, they inadvertently gave Edgecombe one more chance to feel comfortable.
Forced to scramble into defensive position, several Boston defenders tried to keep Maxey out of the lane after Barlow pitched him the ball. The Celtics had the right idea, but the wrong execution. While flying all over the place to prevent Maxey from reaching the paint, they left Edgecombe open on the left wing. He held up his follow-through after releasing a 3-pointer that extended the Celtics’ deficit to eight points shortly before halftime.
Advertisement
“Out of the six (3-pointers) that he made, one came on the left wing right in front of their bench on an offensive rebound,” Mazzulla said, referencing that play. “Like, that’s not a schematic thing. It’s like, we gotta get the rebound so we don’t give up catch-and-shoot ones.”
Mazzulla said another of Edgecombe’s 3-pointers came as the result of the Celtics over-helping off the strongside corner. Then, Mazzulla shared several other long balls Boston could have prevented.
“Again, it goes back to the other ones,” Mazzulla said. “The two (Quentin) Grimes ones that we gave up on over-help, those are more impactful than some of the Edgecombe ones because that’s another guy that’s impacting the game. He’s a really good player, and he can impact it there. It’s those ones. Oubre missed a bunch in Game 1 that he got in Game 2. He got a corner one in transition off a pick-and-roll with Maxey across from our bench, he made that one. (Justin) Edwards got one with two seconds left on the shot clock because we kind of gambled and gave up one late in the clock. We have to go back and look at the ones that come schematically and tactically and which ones come situationally that we have to be better at in certain moments.”
Mazzulla outlined plenty of ways the Celtics need to sharpen up. He kept the spotlight on the little details they needed to fix, rather than the open shots they needed to make.
“You focus on the stuff that you can be better at, that’s within your control,” Mazzulla said. “I know it’s tough, you can’t necessarily control when you shoot it, if it goes in or not.”