Boston — Joe Mazzulla won his 100th game as Celtics head coach on Wednesday night, defeating the Nets 136-86 at TD Garden.
Boston’s head coach has begun to settle in, with a career record of 100-37 and plenty of expertise lacking during Mazzulla’s first season in charge. We now have a solid knowledge of Mazzulla’s coaching style and how it plays out night-to-night with a Celtics club on an NBA Finals or bust run at Banner 18.
“I think it’s something to be proud of, something to be grateful for, and it’s just a testament to the people you surround yourself with,” Mazzulla said of reaching 100 wins. “I think in a business where individual success in highly talked about on a nightly basis — like the box score and stuff like that — to have a group of people playing and sharing success with is important.”
Mazzulla’s performance was difficult to predict last season. The club pushed the former bench coach into the fire after the Celtics abruptly fired Ime Udoka, who is currently the head coach of the Houston Rockets. Mazzulla, with four seasons of assistant-coaching experience in the NBA, didn’t receive a fair shake with only weeks to prepare for the season when appointed interim head coach.
At the time, the Celtics had just lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, meaning expectations were higher than ever since Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown took over as the faces of the franchise. And even despite a gut-punching playoff exit to the then-No. 8-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, that high bar hasn’t lowered a single bit. If anything, its gone up a notch with a fresh new coaching staff hand-picked by Mazzulla, and a new-and-improved roster, featuring offseason blockbuster acquisitions Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
Fast forward to Boston’s final matchup before the 2024 All-Star break and Mazzulla’s come to form, revealing who the Celtics have in their head coach.
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