Joe Mazzulla Mocks Reporter After Celtics’ Game 1 Collapse Vs. Knicks

Joe Mazzulla couldn’t help but chuckle when he fielded a certain question Tuesday afternoon.

After the Celtics blew a 20-point Game 1 lead to the Knicks on Monday, Mazzulla was asked about Boston’s record-breaking struggles from beyond the arc at TD Garden. But later in his press conference, the Celtics head coach was reminded that New York’s second-half 3-point conversion rate exceeded 50%.

The shift in questioning got a rise out of Mazzulla, who did a little trolling before moving on to the next question.

“Man, what a novel idea. That’s a novel concept, huh? Just make them when you’re open,” Mazzula told reporters, per a video shared by CLNS. “It’s such a cool duality of your question. I’m getting asked about all the ones we missed and you come in and start with, ‘They shot 50% in the second half.’ The duality of that question is really cool to talk about, you know what I mean? We start the press conference off by saying, ‘You took all these and you missed them.’ And then you say, ‘They shot 50% in the second half from three.’ Yeah, you have to make them.”

Boston certainly will have to make a higher percentage of 3-pointers Wednesday night when it hosts New York for Game 2. If the Celtics struggle mightily again from distance, they could face the daunting scenario of traveling to Madison Square Garden down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.