Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla Rejects ‘Disrespectful’ Takeaway From Loss Vs. Lakers

BOSTON — Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla embraced the uncomfortable truth behind a brutal Thursday night in the office.

Without LeBron James or Anthony Davis active to play, the Lakers comfortably took down the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics. Los Angeles took full advantage of a constant repeat of mistakes made, taking a strong 60-46 lead at halftime while Boston turned the ball over 12 times and failed to gather any offensive rhythm.

Even with chances and that turnover total cut down to three in the second half, not enough timely baskets were found to escape the loser’s column.

“Welcome to the NBA,” Mazzulla said while walking toward the podium after Boston’s 114-105 loss to the Lakers at TD Garden.

While heading back to the tunnel after an uncommon first-half showing, the Celtics were showered with boos from the hometown crowd. The fans knew the performance was unacceptable to Boston’s standards, and even though Mazzulla took no issue with the booing, the second-year head coach refused to characterize the loss by using one “disrespectful” word: embarrassing.

“I think telling another human they should be embarrassed is very disrespectful. That’s how I look at life,” Mazzulla explained. “I think to say, ‘You should be embarrassed,” that’s disrespectful.”

Los Angeles held Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White to a combined 25 points on a combined 12-of-32 shooting. Everyone in Boston’s starting lineup registered a negative plus-minus, and by the time the third quarter rolled around, Mazzulla benched Brown and Porzingis.

The Celtics proceeded to waive the surrender flag with 2:01 left in the fourth quarter, watching a Lakers team with dicey hopes of making the playoffs, roll into Boston and take over the parquet. Nevertheless, with two days off, Mazzulla looks forward to making the right adjustments and working around where the team fell short before Sunday’s matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies — who sit at the No. 13 seed in the Western Conference (18-30).

“I’m not concerned by (the loss). I’m not happy about it, but I’m not concerned by it,” Mazzulla added. “I think it’s unacceptable. Doesn’t mean that I’m concerned. We’ll work through it. I think part of bad stretches of basketball is physical just as much as mental. … To look at everything with this lens of just two games or a stretch or a week or whatever the case may be, doesn’t do the justice of the process of what we do over a long period of time. It’s unacceptable, make sure you know that, but at the same time, it’s going to happen and it’s a matter of holding guys accountable.”

Boston still owns an NBA-best 37-12.