How Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown Reacted To Benching In Loss To Lakers

Joe Mazzulla wasn’t happy with his team’s effort against an undermanned Los Angeles Lakers squad Thursday night and wanted to make some sort of statement early in the second half with the Boston Celtics down double digits.

So, the Celtics head coach elected to bench three starters in Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday just 2:56 into the third quarter with Boston trailing, 70-54.

It had to be a shock to the system for the trio, who are rarely in that position, but Porzingis saw where his coaching was coming from.

“We deserved it,” Porzingis told reporters following Boston’s 114-105 loss at TD Garden, per The Athletic’s Jared Weiss. “We were pissed off at ourselves. I understood it. You never want to come out of the game, but something needed to change.”

Brown didn’t have the same reaction to it as Porzingis but seemed to begrudgingly accept it.

“I haven’t been in that position too often, so it kind of is what it is,” Brown told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston postgame coverage. “We weren’t playing our best, I wasn’t playing my best, so nothing I can really say there. Every time I step out onto the court, I try to add to winning and tonight, I tried to make sure I was being unselfish, hitting our guys in stride and sharing the ball and stuff. But was a little lackadaisical. Wasn’t my best game, but I’ll put it behind me. Be ready for the next one.”

While Porzingis and Brown sat for the rest of the third quarter, Mazzulla did go back to Holiday, playing him for three more minutes in the frame. Porzingis and Brown came back into the game to start the fourth quarter.

The Celtics had a mixed response after the benching of the three starters, getting within six twice but never pulling closer than that.

Porzingis had a rough showing as even though he blocked five shots and scored 17 points, he shot just 1-for-7 from beyond the arc and finished with a minus-22 rating, the lowest on the team. Brown scored just eight points on 4-for-12 shooting in 27 minutes while Holiday also scored eight points in 29 minutes.