Love it. I think we also forget that "adjustments" can't just be robotically implemented. The players clearly had trouble executing the scheme, probably due to effort issues, but maybe lack of familiarity too.
Joe Mazzulla officially named head coach
- Thread starter Beale13
- Start date
Interesting stat....
View: https://twitter.com/MichaelVPina/status/1785313908045033802
Joe Mazz appears to be winning the ATO battle against Spo (in fairness he has better talent to work with).
View: https://twitter.com/MichaelVPina/status/1785313908045033802
Joe Mazz appears to be winning the ATO battle against Spo (in fairness he has better talent to work with).
That's pretty amazing considering there are matchups like OKC-NO, where OKC has a 93.5 DRtg, and ORL-CLE, where ORL has a 96.8 DRtg.
(Interesting that ORL has the #4 NetRtg in the playoffs currently at +10.7 but are only 2-2.
The talent is way better, but given how many people were ready to crown Spo's ass in this coaching matchup, CJM needs to get a lot of credit.
Even the one "bad" gameplan in game 2 probably looks a lot better if the players execute closeouts properly and play with effort.
He's doing a lot better in his Heat Challenge than Brad, Ime, or Joe 1.0 did. The team is so, so focused, and one step ahead of most of Spo's moves.
Spo also isn't really an ATO wizard, he's good at it, but most of his stuff is gameplan, defense switching.
The big thing I've noticed is.... even after KP went out... the Celtics just are not phased by zone anymore. They went to it last night with KP out, and even without the KP cheat code, Celtics worked it, got a mistake out of the D, hit a wide open 3 from White, went down, worked it some more and Spo swapped out.
Scal said after G3 - and I agree with him - that from the Cs POV, this isn't a series about adjustments. It's not like the Cs have to figure out who is guarding whom or where help is coming from. It's not like the Cs are changing substitution patters or where players are being stationed or what actions they are running.
The Cs are better than MIA and if they play with intention and physicality, they are going to win. They just need to keep doing what they've done in the regular season and what they are doing here in this series.
Which is not what happened in G2.
It was great that CJM didn't overreact to that clunker.
No one's going to give him credit because they were supposed to beat the corpse of the Heat, but Mazzulla did great stuff to attack mismatches out of empty PnR and on the move. Instead of iso'ing Herro, they kept bringing his man in to screen, and then were able to attack him while he was switching and chasing the play. Really good stuff to exploit a shitty defender while not letting Miami load up with late help.
In the calculus of "CJM vs Udoka as better head coach", White's startling improvement has to count in Mazzulla's favor. Maybe the same improvement would have happened under Udoka, but I doubt it when I recall how tentative White looked during the 2022 playoffs.
Lots of athletes are wired with irrational swagger and confidence. White comes across as more of a normal human in this respect, both for better and for worse. Probably having a hard-ass like Udoka was valuable for certain players on the roster at a certain point in their collective development, but it seems clear that White has benefited from having more of a "players' coach."
With the caveat that Spo's available talent was extremely limited, CJM and Tatum played him like a fiddle this series imo.
That caveat matters. But Joe has to coach against, and the Celtics play against, the actual opposing team, injuries and all. Have to give Joe and the team credit for doing it.
I also give them credit for blowing Miami out in every win. Beating the lesser team is great--not letting them into the game at all is much better (and harder).
To this point, the Celts hit 99% win probability:
game 1 - 3:28 left in Q3
game 3 - 1:26 left in Q2
game 4 - 5:25 left in Q3
game 5 - 8:35 left in Q2
I think I got that correct. That's crazy.
I laughed out loud last night when they showed that the money line was off the board and it was like a few minutes into the third quarter. I believe Scam said he had never seen that before.
Wob put out his Heat Therapy Session tweet thread in the 3rd. Not sure I've seen that before.
https://x.com/WorldWideWob/status/1785841974777725172
I thought Mazzulla was better than the players last night. Aggressive timeouts when they hit dumb lulls, used Kornet more to limit Al's minutes, schemes on D were strong. The offensive issues were mostly from the players missing shots or throwing the ball to the other team.
Yes, Kornet's minutes went from 7:51 in Game 3 to 19:28 last night. He listened to what the Port Cellar wanted him to do! Therefore, he must be coaching well 
And the timeout thing has become such a non-issue at this point that we hardly notice it from him. He takes 'em right about when we'd want him to take them. No more of this "they'll figure it out".
And the timeout thing has become such a non-issue at this point that we hardly notice it from him. He takes 'em right about when we'd want him to take them. No more of this "they'll figure it out".
True though last night he let it go from 15 to 7 or 8 in the 4th without calling one. Not egregious though.Yes, Kornet's minutes went from 7:51 in Game 3 to 19:28 last night. He listened to what the Port Cellar wanted him to do! Therefore, he must be coaching well
And the timeout thing has become such a non-issue at this point that we hardly notice it from him. He takes 'em right about when we'd want him to take them. No more of this "they'll figure it out".
The only time I got a bit annoyed was in the middle of the 4th when Celts were up 98-83 after Jaylens somewhat ill-advised but beautiful turnaround, and then came up empty on a bunch of possessions and Cleveland eventually had the ball down 98-91 with a chance to get it within 5 with about 5 min to go. Watching live it felt like at some point a TO would've helped.
What do you think is the main hesitation behind not trying a small lineup (i.e. Tatum or Tillman at the 5)? Is it the lack of regular season minutes or threat of Mobley that makes them hesitant to try even with Horford's two bad games? I don't necessarily think it's a good idea, but I'm surprised it hasn't been tried.
Ha. That wasnt even a jinx! my bad...had that all written out and then work got in the way before I could hit post. But agree that it wasnt egregious, in real time it just got to me a bit.
Probably because they're already asking so much out of Tatum that they don't want to gas him further by playing the 5. He's playing heavy minutes of high usage basketball. He's already slowing the pace down late as the 4. If you want him to play the 5 he will need either lower usage or fewer minutes. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing some of it earlier in the game, but I'm also confident in Al and Luke to get the job done.
Yeah, he's already limiting his (very effective) drive quantity, probably for energy conservation.
I think it's a combination of never having done it, and thinking they don't need to do it to win the series. I think there's a concern that it would put too much on Tatum's plate (although in a theoretical Tatum-at-the-5 lineup, I think you play Tatum on the wing as a help defender and let Jaylen or Jrue guard the big).
Still, if that lineup induced the Cavs to throw away their offense in favor of dumping the ball to Mobley in the post over and over again, I think that's a win from the Celtics' perspective.
Is there really any other criteria?He listened to what the Port Cellar wanted him to do! Therefore, he must be coaching well
I think that would only apply to the idea of going small against a team that is playing a typical lineup. If the Cavs go small and it works for them, I don't see anything wrong with the Celtics responding in kind. I don't see why Tatum would be less gassed matching up agaisnt the same guy just because Horford/Kornet and Mobley/Thompson are in the game vs out of it.
He's such a psycho. It's awesome. Did he elaborate what those things were exactly?