The In-Season Tournament has had mixed reviews.
How much do teams care? Is it worth risking the health of your players for a trip to Vegas and $500,000 for a chance at a trophy that won’t mean anything come June?
Those appraisals are understandable.
However, there is no doubt Tuesday night's win over the Chicago Bulls was one of the more unique victories in regular season history for the Celtics.
The funky court, sophisticated scenarios, scoreboard watching around the league, and the strategic approach in a near 30-point game were unprecedented for an NBA game in November, and it made for a fun night.
While the In-Season Tournament has been a great product for fans, one area in particular has felt a little uncomfortable to players – The point differential.
The Celtics needed at least a 23-point win, coupled with a little help from the Brooklyn Nets, to clinch their group via the point differential tiebreaker
Entering Tuesday night, the Celtics weren’t focused on winning by the 23-point differential. They knew what they needed to happen, and had an assistant coach keeping an eye on the Nets-Raptors game just in case, but it wasn’t a focus for them. Instead, they were focused on building good habits and just getting a victory.
But when the Celtics found themselves with a 30-point lead early in the fourth and with the Nets in a close one with Toronto, the possibility of advancing to the quarterfinals was in reach, and the approach shifted.
“We didn’t know we were going to be in that position to start the game,” Mazzulla said. “So when we got to that point, I felt like it was time to execute and put ourselves in position to advance into the tournament. Going into a game you can’t think those things. You do have to be prepared for them. So once you’re in that situation, you have to be ready to go to it, so I thought our process the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter did the best we could at putting us in position to advance.”
Up by 28 with 7:34 to go in the fourth quarter, Boston’s starters checked back in, in an effort to build the lead. Upon re-inserting the starters with a 29-point lead, the Celtics decided to go with the Hack-a-Drummond on back-to-back possessions. Drummond missed all four of his free throw attempts, and the lead was quickly up to 34.
Running up the score in a blowout was unusual, and players expressed their discomfort postgame.
“To be honest it was a little weird,” Jaylen Brown said following the win over Chicago. “It’s tough because that’s just not how the game is supposed to be played. One, you gotta respect your opponents and two, it’s just a weird setup. We understand the rules, but if I was on the other team, I would be upset as well when we were doing the Hack-a-Drummond in the middle of the fourth quarter… There’s a line between increasing excitement, revenue, whatever, and compromising ethics of the game. “
Though it may be different, the point differential in the In-Season Tournament is compelling the Celtics to confront a prominent issue head-on: Their tendency to blow leads.
Blowing leads has been a chronic issue for the Celtics for years now. The Celtics have regularly lost focus when possessing a big lead, costing them games and putting them in some tough positions.
With the point differential, teams can’t afford to take their foot off the gas, as focus and attention to detail are necessary for a full 48 minutes – Something Mazzulla believes his team can learn from.
“The point differential has opened up the perspective of why teams blow leads, and why the difference in basketball here in America is different in Europe because the expectation of point differential makes teams have to keep playing,” Mazzulla said.
"So, regardless of if it's 30 points and a point differential, or we’re up 18 with six minutes to go, can we play as hard as we can and not just be hopeful that we'll win this game or get through it? Can we like strive in those situations?"
The Celtics' tendency to ease off circles back to a concept Mazzulla often underscores: The idea of playing with the right mindset.
Mazzulla believes that the In-Season tournament provides his team with an opportunity to improve in this regard.
“The In-Season Tournament has really helped kinda give the perspective of like should we not be trying as hard as we could when you’re up 32 points or up 25 or up 18? So it’s just that level of perspective, Mazzulla said. “I think if we can, at some point, be the team that’s best at playing regardless of what the score is, it allows us to build a mindset and habits.”
“Whether it’s an In-Season Tournament and there’s point differential or not, we have to get great at that space of we’re winning, and we gotta work on keep winning, not relax,” Mazzulla added.
Jaylen Brown also views the In-Season Tournament as a chance to grow in that area.
“I think the in-season tournament is going to help us a little bit because the season can get a little mundane, 82 games, it’s a grind, it gets kind of like monotonous a little bit, game after game,” Brown said. “But mixing it up, having something a little bit different, I think it’ll increase our focus levels and hopefully we’ll be able to keep that maintained throughout the season.”
For the Celtics, a team that’s still feeling each other out with the additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, the In-Season Tournament provides an opportunity for them to grow in a unique way.
While there is no perfect way to simulate a playoff game, as the Celtics advance to the knockout stage, the single-game-elimination format could, depending on how seriously teams take it, offer the closest experience to a playoff game and a chance to send an early message to the rest of the league.
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