Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla’s ‘Inappropriate’ Joke Didn’t Go Over Well

The Boston Celtics defeated the Washington Wizards on Friday, but the expected result didn’t come as easily as some at TD Garden might have anticipated.

Boston, quadrupling Washington’s win total before the NBA All-Star break, was expected to roll over the Wizards, but found itself locked in a third quarter battle. It looked like the C’s were a bad quarter away from one of their worst losses of the season, prompting head coach Joe Mazzulla to try and ease the tension.

What better way than by telling some jokes?

“I told a couple jokes in the third quarter,” Mazzulla admitted, per video provided by CLNS Media. “It’s pretty inappropriate jokes, but it broke the tension because we were playing with the expectation of ‘Why is the game going the way it’s going?’ instead of just enjoying the fact this is a game and we should just compete.”

It appears the jokes worked, as the Celtics took a lead midway through the quarter and never gave it back up. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone on Boston’s bench was tickled to hear them.

“Joe tells jokes,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown said postgame, per CLNS. “I wouldn’t say he does it often, but he definitely tries to put his personality in there. He’s had better luck than today.”

The jokes were funny, though. Right?

“That’s what he told you? I guess that’s what we’re going to go with. We were losing at the time, so I didn’t find it funny. I understand, though. That’s Joe.”

It doesn’t sound like Mazzulla’s going to be taping a comedy special anytime soon, but maybe he could take a week off from jiu-jitsu training to work on his material down at Laugh Boston. He could also just stick to his day job, which has him and the Celtics holding the league’s best record at 40-12.