Humbly, legendary resident Boston sports coaching measuring stick Bill Belichick likes to proclaim that players win games and coaches lose them.
It is under that local leadership umbrella that Green-to-the-core first-year Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla prepares himself and his All-NBA star-studded squad for an Eastern Conference Finals matchup with the Miami Heat.
While this is a rematch for the two teams from last spring and an extension of the modern day rivalry between the franchises, this is the 34-year-old Mazzulla’s first crack at a conference title, coming under the ever-strengthening spotlight and microscope.
On paper, Mazzulla brings the more talented team to TD Garden and our TNT TV screens. Jayson Tatum is supposed to be the best player in the series, even if Jimmy Butler is a proven postseason dog of the highest level. Jaylen Brown is the best No. 2 option. Right on down the line from Robert Williams and Marcus Smart through Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon, Boston gets the nod in talent. Heck, ESPN’s “analytics” give Miami just a three-percent chance to win the series.
But any big game or series preview in any sport worth its weight in digital screen space includes coaching and, well, Mazzulla simply doesn’t measure up to Miami sideline savant Erik Spoelstra.
Spoelstra has been there and done that. He’s won with star talent and done more with less over his career. He has the kind of respect earned with rings and the kind of respect earned with years of experience and proven performance.
Mazzulla cannot compare to Spoelstra. He won’t even try.
He shouldn’t try. He even rightly made it clear that he’s not facing off against his bench brethren over the next two weeks —“It’s the Boston Celtics vs. the Miami Heat.”
What Mazzulla cannot do, though, is fall on his Eastern Conference Finals face. As the seven game series – it has to go seven games, right? – plays out, Mazzulla has to do his best impression of a good ref or offensive lineman. Mazzulla can be seen. Might even be heard. But he cannot be talked about.
If Mazzulla becomes the story at any point over the next two weeks and seven games of basketball it will be a bad thing, likely a really bad thing, for his Boston Celtics.
If Mazzulla is the talk of this series in any meaningful way it means he’s probably failed to have his team adjust to the zone defenses that we all know Spoelstra will be throwing at Tatum & Co. It probably means that he’s once again chosen a curious tact in terms of timeouts in critical points of a game. It might mean his lineups and rotations are failing to create advantageous matchups despite seemingly having the more diverse, deep roster to pull from.
“All the confidence in the world,” Brown said of his head coach. “We’ve been learning on the fly together. Joe has come in with great humility. He’s learned throughout the series against Philadelphia. He’s learned throughout this entire year that has presented him with new challenges that he’s ready to take on first and foremost. It’s not like he’s by himself. The coaching staff, all the experience we’ve got on our team has been contributing to what Joe needs and his mindset as well. We’ve got each other’s back and we’re looking forward to a great series.”
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge for Joe, but I think he’s going to handle it well,” Brogdon said with a smile.
It is indeed going to be a challenge. Mazzulla’s Boston Celtics against Spoelstra’s Miami Heat.
A challenge in which the Boston coach doesn’t need to win the series or the “matchup” with Spoelstra. He probably can’t win the series.
Luckily in the home of Lucky, he has the players to do that.
But as Mazzulla writes the earliest of bullet points of his coaching resume, he just needs to make sure he doesn’t lose it.