BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla didn’t waste much time putting Mike Muscala on the court when the Boston Celtics acquired the sharpshooting center from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But since the All-Break, Mazzulla has sparingly used Muscala, who was the Celtics’ lone addition prior to the NBA trade deadline.
Muscala received back-to-back DNP-CDs against the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers last week before seeing just 11 minutes of action in the second half after not playing at all in the first half in Boston’s frustrating road loss to the New York Knicks on Monday.
The limited playing time throws into question the role Muscala will have over the final 20 games of the regular season, but Mazzulla tried to shed some light on just that prior to the Celtics taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden on Wednesday.
“I thought the second half just our spacing felt different, our ball movement felt different when he was in there,” Mazzulla said. “I think that’s something that he can bring. I think it’s just a matter of the game will kind of tell us what lineup we need now that we have the ability to go a bunch of a different ways. It’s just important that we make sure we play that way when we need to to exploit the matchup.”
Muscala’s biggest asset is his 3-point shooting as he’s shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc for the season. In five games with the Celtics, he is hitting 40% of his 3-point attempts.
Getting another shooter on the floor to create more space could surely benefit Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown by opening up more room to drive to the basket.
Mazzulla could also choose to use Muscala to lessen the minutes on Al Horford and Robert Williams before the playoffs. Horford and Williams haven’t played in back-to-backs all season, opening another opportunity for more minutes for Muscala. But the Celtics only have two back-to-backs the rest of the way.
So, it might be on Mazzulla to get creative to get Muscala on the floor more often.
