The Boston Celtics were puking all over themselves. Literally. Marcus Smart said he had to retreat to the locker room at Crypto.com Arena at one point Tuesday night to ensure he didn’t actually barf on the hardwood.
But even as the Celtics came completely unglued and stumbled towards what would have easily been their worst loss of the season, interim head coach Joe Mazzulla basically looked at his stars and reaffirmed a pregame message.
Get your [bleep] together.
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Mazzulla, as he is wont to do, didn’t burn a timeout as the Lakers morphed a 20-point deficit into a 13-point lead. He has repeatedly reminded his players that he’s not always going to be able to save them and that they need to figure things out in high-pressure situations.
Staring at a potential third straight loss and with national pundits salivating at the chance to discredit their fast start to the 2022-23 season, the Celtics figured it out.
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Boston erased that 13-point deficit over the final 3:40 of regulation then utilized a 12-0 burst in overtime to escape with a 122-118 win over the rival Lakers.
"Joe tells us all the time he’s not going to save us," said Jayson Tatum, whose baseline fadeaway over LeBron James forced overtime and immediately became one of his signature highlights. "Especially in the course of the game when we’re not playing the way that we should be, a lot of times he tell us, ‘Figure it out.’ And he challenges us.
"That’s what he did tonight. Even before the game, how he talked to us to start -- myself, [Jaylen Brown], Smart -- he challenged us, just the way that we’ve been playing was not going to cut it."
Tatum said Mazzulla openly challenged each of the team’s core players to be better after consecutive losses to the Warriors and Clippers.
"He said it was our responsibility and, if we want to be champions, if we want to get to that point, that it’s a responsibility each and every night," said Tatum. "Nobody is going to take it easy on us."
The Celtics arrived in California with a giant target on their back. Not only had they established themselves as the best team in basketball over the first quarter of the season, but a 3-0 start to a season-long six-game road trip raised even more eyebrows. So did a dismantling of the then-West-leading Suns to start the West Coast portion of the trip.
But things went sideways. The Celtics came out way too tense against Golden State, Tatum turned in a clunker on a big stage, and Boston got a firm reminder of the sort of pride a championship team must play with. Compounding matters, Boston turned in one of its worst all-around efforts two nights later against the Clippers.
A loss to the Lakers would have been catastrophic -- at least in the moment. Not only is there the basic pride of the rivalry, but Los Angeles hasn’t exactly been one of the league’s elite teams this year. Tatum and Brown were on the verge of losing a third straight matchup against an elite combo in Steph Curry/Klay Thompson, Paul George/Kawhi Leonard, and then LeBron/Anthony Davis.
Instead, the Celtics figured it out. Though Mazzulla deserves credit for his influences, too.
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During a mic'd up timeout before Boston’s fourth-quarter surge, Mazzulla basically told his team that, if they just stop allowing a layup line in transition, the Lakers didn’t have any other means of offense. He quietly inserted Luke Kornet into the crunch-time lineup to provide needed rim protection and the Lakers' offense immediately withered.
The key moment might have been when Smart -- right after a Grant Williams 3-pointer started Boston’s fourth-quarter run -- intercepted a lazy James inbound pass and produced a layup to trim Boston’s deficit to eight with 3:38 to go. The Celtics had a pulse again at that point.
Smart was having a bad night and a bad stretch of this trip. He had battled foul trouble and shooting woes. Mazzulla could have easily gone with Malcolm Brogdon in that spot, but Smart typically has a flair for big plays in those moments. Of course, Smart scored seven points over the final 3:38 to help force the extra session. It was a Smart floater, followed by him assisting on Williams’ go-ahead 3-pointer, that ignited Boston’s overtime run.
When Mazzulla was surprisingly elevated to the head coaching chair, the big question was whether he could push his stars the way that Ime Udoka did last season. His approach might not be exactly the same, and Mazzulla has his in-game quirks like his disdain for timeouts, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
Mazzulla challenged his stars on Tuesday night and they responded. Their reward was a much happier flight home Wednesday. The team now dives into a seven-game homestand to close out calendar year 2022. What’s more, the Celtics should get back Al Horford and (maybe?!) Robert Williams III on Friday night.
The Celtics put themselves in a tough spot but found a way out. Mazzulla’s faith in his players was rewarded but it could pay even bigger dividends down the road.