{"id":1871123,"date":"2026-04-08T01:10:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1871123"},"modified":"2026-04-08T01:10:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:10:38","slug":"joe-mazzulla-appreciates-giannis-praise-but-credits-players-i-think-it-starts-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1871123","title":{"rendered":"Joe Mazzulla appreciates Giannis\u2019 praise but credits players: \u2018I think it starts there\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BOSTON \u2014 As much as Joe Mazzulla appreciated Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s recent praise, the Boston Celtics head coach said the credit for his team\u2019s success this season belongs to his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he\u2019s a great player,\u201d Mazzulla said when asked about Antetokounmpo\u2019s comments. \u201cBut I think my reaction was, like, \u2018You can\u2019t do anything unless you have the players to be able to do that.\u2019 And I think that may sound \u2014 I say it a lot, but it\u2019s just that simple. I think the greatest gift you can have as a coach, especially in the NBA, is to have a group of players that have a high competitive character, care about winning and want to get better. I think it starts there. And so that kind of was my response to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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During a recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Antetokounmpo brought up Mazzulla\u2019s coaching this season in response to a question about his uncertain future with the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo used Mazzulla\u2019s approach as an example of what he wants after saying everything about his decision will be based on winning and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, you saw I talked with coach Joe Mazzulla,\u201d Antetokounmpo told Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. \u201cI said, \u2018You had so many opportunities to make excuses, but you didn\u2019t.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Oh, they\u2019re good players.\u2019 I said, no. It\u2019s about the mentality that you instilled in your place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Celtics were widely expected to experience a significant falloff after losing several of their best players over the offseason, but have continued their winning ways despite missing injured star Jayson Tatum for most of the season. Clearly, the success has caught Antetokounmpo\u2019s attention. Mazzulla said that with all the unknowns the Celtics had entering the season, their mindset began with a focus on what they did know about themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to kind of get to the knowns,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cLike, what do we know? We know that JB (Jaylen Brown) is going to lead, he\u2019s going to get better as a player, he\u2019s going to get better as a leader, he\u2019s going to be in position. He thrives in situations like this. When the deck is stacked against you, you\u2019ve got a chip on your shoulder, JB thrives in that. We know that. We know, here are all the players that we have for opening night, what they\u2019ve done for us \u2014 Derrick (White), Payton (Pritchard) and Sam (Hauser) have won games for us. We know what (Neemias Queta has) done for us. Jordan (Walsh) has won games for us.<\/p>\n

So, we just got to the knowns. We knew (Tatum) was going to do anything he could to get back (from a torn Achilles). We knew that. And so, with all those knowns, it\u2019s like, OK, here\u2019s where we\u2019re at and how we go about this. I think it was just kind of getting on the same page with Jaylen, getting on the same page with the guys that were returning, getting on the same page with where JT was at in the rehab and saying, \u2018OK, this is how we have to go about it.\u2019 And it\u2019s a credit to them for, you know, I think sticking to that. And we got a long way to go, but here\u2019s where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With four games left in the regular season, the Celtics own a three-game lead on the Knicks in the loss column for the second seed in the Eastern Conference. In what some expected to be a \u201cgap year,\u201d Boston has played like a championship contender. Now, with Tatum back and thriving, the Celtics have cleared up many of the unknowns Mazzulla saw at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n

Brad Stevens has said all along that he won\u2019t put a ceiling on this group. In a rare press conference Tuesday night, he said his feeling about his team hasn\u2019t changed much despite the success.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just know that we can play,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen us rise and meet challenges, and I know that this team\u2019s looking forward to the next one. As you get into this time of year and get into the playoffs, everything\u2019s hard, the other teams are really good, and we\u2019ll see where it all stacks out. But I\u2019m going to continue to not put a ceiling on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the Celtics\u2019 ceiling is, Tatum returning to such a high level should increase their chances of reaching it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody involved with that gets a lot of credit because of the amount of work that everybody put into it,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cNobody more than Jayson. Close, close second by (trainer) Nick (Sang, who worked closely with Tatum throughout his recovery). It was pretty incredible to watch up close. I got a front-row seat to the whole thing. I wasn\u2019t sitting on the edge of my seat like others were the first time they saw him run up and down the court, playing five-on-five.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 As much as Joe Mazzulla appreciated Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s recent praise, the Boston Celtics head coach said the credit for his team\u2019s success this season belongs to his players. \u201cObviously, he\u2019s a great player,\u201d Mazzulla said when asked about Antetokounmpo\u2019s comments. \u201cBut I think my reaction was, like, \u2018You can\u2019t do anything unless you […]<\/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-1871123","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\/1871123","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=1871123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1871123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1871123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1871123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}