It wouldn’t have been surprising to see Joe Mazzulla pull his starters in the fourth quarter of the Celtics’ loss to the Clippers on Monday night.
In fact, it was a bit surprising that he decided not to pull them.
Boston fell 113-93 at Crypto.com Arena in a game where the C’s offense struggled mightily. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum combined to go 3-for-14 from the 3-point line as the Celtics shot 23.1% from beyond the arc.
Nothing seemed to be going right for Boston, but Mazzulla elected to leave the starters in the game despite it being out of reach. Brown, who finished the game with a team-high 21 points, had no issue with their head coach doing so.
“We wasn’t playing basketball up to par, so I wouldn’t have been mad if he did,” Brown told reporters, per MassLive’s Souichi Terada. “But I appreciate his decision to rock with us and we picked it up a little bit. Defensively, got some turnovers and I think that did help our confidence to end the night on a good note. … Him letting us rock there for a little bit was not bad.”
Mazzulla had a good reason for keeping the starters in, though.
“I trust the guys,” Mazzulla told reporters, per Terada. “I got their back. I’m in on them. Just because things aren’t going well, I’m not gonna do that. There is a time and a place for that, but I felt like it was important to let them kind of just get their rhythm and keep their spirit heading into (Tuesday’s) game. I thought that was important.”
The Celtics have had a grueling road trip out west and look to end it on a high note Tuesday night against the 11-15 Los Angeles Lakers. Tipoff is set for 10 p.m. ET.
