{"id":1856274,"date":"2026-03-30T22:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1856274"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:44:08","slug":"joe-mazzulla-on-nbas-coach-of-the-year-honor-i-think-its-a-stupid-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1856274","title":{"rendered":"Joe Mazzulla on NBA\u2019s Coach of the Year honor: \u2018I think it\u2019s a stupid award\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ATLANTA \u2014 Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla once said nobody cares about the Coach of the Month Award. It was on brand for him to express a similar sentiment on Monday when asked about potentially winning Coach of the Year this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need it,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a stupid award. They shouldn\u2019t have it. And it\u2019s more about the players. It\u2019s more about the work that the staff puts in. It\u2019s just that simple. I really don\u2019t ever want to be asked or talk about it again. It\u2019s just that dumb. So, the players play. It\u2019s about them. Staff works their ass off. I\u2019m grateful to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Though Mazzulla didn\u2019t want to discuss his candidacy, he is considered one of the contenders for Coach of the Year after guiding the Celtics to their fifth straight 50-win season despite an offseason overhaul and Jayson Tatum missing most of the season. Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder lauded the job Mazzulla has done to lead the Celtics to second place in the Eastern Conference, saying he has done \u201ca terrific job identifying where their strengths are \u2014 and they play to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll say it again,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cAnytime your roster changes, when you lose a player of Jayson Tatum\u2019s caliber, you adjust. I think that\u2019s in this league, as coaches, that\u2019s a big part of the job. Not just that, but trying to find efficiencies and what they\u2019ve done as far as the way they play. They\u2019ve got a real purpose with what they do on both ends of the floor. They do a great job of protecting the paint and (are) just really aggressive with their help situations. And then, the offensive stuff is really the part that people look at the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s a credit to (Payton) Pritchard, (Jaylen) Brown, a lot of guys that have (been) involved even more so as players (while) getting more usage and opportunities. What Joe\u2019s done is figure out a way to play that maximizes the personality that they have. And I think ultimately that\u2019s fundamentally, when I look at them and watch them play, why I would say that he\u2019s done such a terrific job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach of the Year won\u2019t be decided until after the regular season, but Tatum won an award Monday when he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Tatum averaged 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game while leading the Celtics to a 3-0 week. He also became the youngest Celtics player to reach 14,000 career points. He scored a season-high 32 points on Sunday and tied a season-high with five 3s. Boston is 9-2 since he returned to the lineup on March 6.<\/p>\n

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Even Mazzulla admitted that it was meaningful for Tatum to win the award less than a month after returning from a torn Achilles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good, small affirmation that he\u2019s continuing to chip away at just getting better and better,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a credit to the work that he\u2019s put in, his team, that everybody that\u2019s helped him get back to where he is now and what he\u2019s doing. And so, good, small affirmation and we can keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Celtics great Robert Parish praises Joe Mazzulla: \u2018They have the right coach\u2019\n <\/div>\n
\n Although Parish emphasized his respect for the current Celtics, he said he would choose the 1986 title team over the 2024 winners.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Tatum will not play against the Hawks as the Celtics play the second game of a back-to-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I just trust the people that we have,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI trust the sports science team. I trust (trainer) Nick (Sang), the guy that\u2019s been with him for a lot of his career, but also during this journey and getting back (on the court). So, I kind of stayed out of it and really just listened to the people that know a lot more about that and kind of trust them. And that\u2019s what\u2019s best for our team, that\u2019s what\u2019s best for him right now. And then we go forward. So, just kind of (need) to listen to them on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Tatum, who received a night of rest on the second leg of a back-to-back, the Celtics were handled 112-102 by Atlanta. <\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown credited the Hawks, whose pressure causes headaches for ballhandlers, but also pinned the blame on himself for what he called \u201cprobably one of my worst games of the season.\u201d Brown finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, but committed six of the Celtics\u2019 15 turnovers in an admittedly sloppy performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis game was on me,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be better. Probably one of my worst performances in a while. And that cost us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning after missing two straight games with left Achilles tendinitis, Brown said he \u201cfelt fine\u201d physically and believes the issue \u201cwill be fine going forward.\u201d He was still unhappy following what he deemed an \u201cuncharacteristic\u201d performance for him around the rim.<\/p>\n

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Brown had all sorts of troubles finishing near the basket while missing 10 of his 12 shot attempts inside the paint. He didn\u2019t have much success further away from the rim either, finishing 9 of 29 overall from the field, including 3 of 9 on 3s. He also missed six of his 14 free- throw attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed a lot of easy shots, but it was a very physical game,\u201d Brown said. \u201cPlayoff-like atmosphere, and I didn\u2019t think we adjusted quick enough. They came to play, the refs let a lot of stuff go and we didn\u2019t adjust to the physicality. So, a good game to learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics were tied 54-54 at halftime before getting outscored 36-22 during the third quarter. The Hawks then scored 11 of the first 15 points of the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 101-80. Though the Celtics forced an Atlanta timeout by scoring the next nine points, Mazzulla\u2019s team couldn\u2019t pull any closer than eight points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust not sharp in our execution,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cObviously, Atlanta does that to you. They test your physicality. And so, just we weren\u2019t quite as sharp in execution as we usually are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla once said nobody cares about the Coach of the Month Award. It was on brand for him to express a similar sentiment on Monday when asked about potentially winning Coach of the Year this season. \u201cI don\u2019t need it,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a stupid award. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1856274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1856274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1856274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1856274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1856274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}