Eye-Opening Joe Mazzulla Trend Emerges After Celtics’ Win Vs. Kings

The Boston Celtics bounced back from a tough loss to the Atlanta Hawks with a dominant 112-93 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. While the players delivered the goods in this one, head coach Joe Mazzulla also earned himself some attention, too.

Ever since taking over as the C’s head coach, Mazzulla has had his fair share of doubters, but this season, it’s been tough to ignore the work he’s done with Boston’s shorthanded roster. Simply put, nobody would have guessed that they would have a 30-18 record at this point in the season if you asked them before the campaign got underway.

One area where Mazzulla frequently shows off his coaching chops is when it comes to using his coach’s challenges. After getting a pair of calls overturned against Sacramento, Mazzulla has now been successful on 19 of his 27 coach’s challenges this year.

Mazzulla, of course, isn’t alone in determining when to use his coach’s challenge, so the praise should be given to the coaching staff as a whole, rather than just him. Still, he has been excellent at knowing when to use his challenges in an effort to give his team the best shot at winning every time they take the floor.

While this isn’t the Celtics’ best team during Mazzulla’s time in charge, it is easily the best coaching job of his young career. Despite losing several key contributors over the offseason, while also being without Jayson Tatum as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon, Mazzulla has helped Boston remain among the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

With Tatum’s status for the rest of the season up in the air, Mazzulla is going to have to continue pushing the right buttons for this team moving forward. The C’s will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when they square off against the Milwaukee Bucks.