Up 27 points with 3:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla challenged an out-of-bounds call ruled against Boston’s Oshae Brissett.
Boston’s reserves pleaded for Mazzulla to challenge the call, and the head coach listened to his players, calling for the green light special – Boston was successful with their challenge and wound up with possession.
As the officials reviewed the play, the Raptors appeared to take issue with Mazzulla’s decision to challenge considering his team’s massive lead so late in the game, as Toronto’s head coach Darko Rajaković and Dennis Schroder made their way over to Mazzulla to exchange words.
"Up 30, you're not supposed to challenge nothing," Schroder told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe postgame. "You won, it's three minutes left. You shouldn't disrespect us like that."
While the Raptors viewed Mazzulla’s decision to challenge as disrespectful, Mazzulla saw it as an opportunity to empower his players.
“They [the Raptors bench] thought that it was, I don’t know if it was like, disrespectful or cheap to challenge in that situation. I don’t really agree or disagree. At the end of the day, my responsibility is to my players first,” Mazzulla said when discussing the decision postgame.
“Having respect for the game, we’ve been in that situation before where we don’t shoot the last shot, we let the clock go out, we do that all the time.”
For what it’s worth, the Celtics took a shot-clock violation at the end of the game Saturday night.
“But with three and a half minutes to go when you have a group of guys that check in, and they’re playing as hard as they can, I think it’s my responsibility to my players first, and it was a clear opportunity for me to try and empower the players and let them know ‘I’m coaching you.’ Those minutes, to me, are just as important as the start of the game. That’s what I told my players, and I’ll always put them first,” the bench boss added.
Mazzulla has had an emphasis on coaching everybody on his roster. Earlier this season, in the Celtics’ 126-107 rout over the Washington Wizards, Boston’s bench struggled in the 4th quarter. The C’s reserves were out-scored 32-18 in the fourth quarter by what was mostly reserves for Washington and totaled a whopping nine turnovers in the final frame. After the game, Mazzulla held a reserves-only film session.
Mazzulla views it as his responsibility to coach every player on his roster – Something he tries to do at any opportunity he can.
“There are five guys that are in the game that worked their ass to get to that spot, and the best thing that I feel I can do for them is coach them because that’s what they want, and they are looking for that,” Mazzulla said when asked if he can relax at the end of blowouts following Boston’s 51-point win over Indiana earlier this month. “I try to coach it as if it was the first quarter out of respect for the guys that are on the floor because of the work that they put in.”
Mazzulla’s approach sends a strong message to his roster, one that is appreciated by his players and does not go unnoticed.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in the game, he treats it like it really, really matters, and I think that’s important to all of us too,” Sam Hauser said Saturday night. “If we’re out there we want him to have our backs, and I think he does that… I think it shows that he truly cares from one to 18 (players).”
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