Joe Mazzulla’s Wish Came True Vs. Pacers — And Celtics Prevailed

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla spoke the team’s adversity into existence, yet Boston overcame the challenge during Tuesday night’s nail-bitter against the Pacers at TD Garden.

At first, it looked as though the Celtics were on pace to crush Indiana, now with recently acquired big Pascal Sikam, but that storyline faded. Boston scored a season-high 81 points (on 65.2% shooting) in the first half, the team’s most first-half points since 1982. With a team as stacked as the Celtics, that should be more than enough while ahead by 15 points at halftime, right?

Well, those easy trots to victory aren’t viewed as the most beneficial in Mazzulla’s eyes as the hard-nosed, nail-bitters that fall under the category of a playoff-like atmosphere. He made that abundantly clear after Boston overcame a 17-point deficit 24 hours prior to beat the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I hope we get 10 of them (or) more,” Mazzulla said Monday night, per NBC Sports Boston. “I don’t want to be in a position where everything goes our way. Whatever we have to go through, whatever. It’s important for us, and I think the endurance is a physical and a mental endurance. You gotta learn how to win games all the time. You can’t take the piece for granted.”

Mazzulla’s point, while not the most common, was relatively simple: Boston needs to overcome hurdles instead of getting cozy throughout the regular season. That’s why Mazzulla hopes to see the Celtics tested, even if that produces blown double-digit leads when facing subpar competition. Mazzulla views every NBA team — regardless of records — as legitimate opponents capable of going toe-to-toe with Boston’s NBA-best (37-11) roster.

Undergoing a recent stint of cold starts — the Celtics averaged 23.5 first-quarter points in their four previous games — Boston, once again, hit a deja vu stage, stuck at the 24-point mark for four straight possessions through an over-two-minute-long stretch to begin Tuesday night’s battle. The C’s attempted 28 shots and ended strong shooting 50% from the field.

Again, ideally, that’s the foundation for a blowout. But for the Celtics, who led by as many as 20 points to Indiana’s largest lead of one point, that still didn’t prove to be enough for an early starters pull in the second-half kind of night.

Boston allowed the Pacers to go on a 16-4 run to begin the third quarter before Mazzulla called a timeout and had seen enough. Indiana, a team that entered the season an Eastern Conference afterthought, but has since become a B-tier-caliber contender behind the Celtics, never backed down.

That pushed Boston to tiptoe its way to avoiding a second home loss in the last three games to begin its seven-game homestand — a semi-dramatic turn after the Celtics set a franchise record with 20 wins at TD Garden to open up the season.

The Pacers scored 31 second-chance points right in front of Boston’s third-to-best defense in terms of rating (111.0), which tied for the most second-chance points a team’s allowed so far. Unlike struggling to navigate a hot-shooting night from the opposing team, second-chance points are fairly controllable.

WHAT A BLOCK ✋🏽 pic.twitter.com/iQ6lmJCIl7

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 31, 2024

Nevertheless, Mazzulla remains adamant on nail-bitters being a favorable position for the Celtics, emphasizing that point following the 129-124 win over the Pacers.

“Perfect,” Mazzulla told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston. “… Their pace puts a ton of pressure and you’re constantly in rotations, and any time you’re constantly in rotations, you can’t find the guy in particular.”

Mazzulla added: “That’s a hard-playing team. Damn.”

Aside from Boston’s record-flirting 155-104 win over Indiana in November, when NBA assists leader Tyrese Haliburton was sidelined, the Celtics haven’t been able to make easy work of the Pacers. Out of the four matchups since, three of them have resulted in a scoring differential of 10 points or less.

Premonition for a conference finals matchup? Only time will tell.

Although Mazzulla leans toward the much more dicey contests that put Boston’s ability to overcome tough situations to the test, the Celtics aren’t fully against cakewalk trots to the finish line either.

“I don’t like blowing leads like that,” Celtics guard Jrue Holiday said postgame, per NBC Sports Boston. “But I think being able to battle back and win those is huge for us.”

Having 34 games left to go should give Boston more than enough time to go either direction; blow leads, blowout teams or strap its boots and overcome the gritty battles with fellow contenders.