Joe Mazzulla was being ‘beneficiant’ by taking the blame for Recreation 3, gamers say

Celtics

Joe Mazzulla performed a job within the Celtics’ Recreation 3 collapse, however gamers say he does not deserve all of the blame.

Joe Mazzulla put the blame on himself for the Celtics’ Recreation 3 loss to Miami within the Japanese Convention Finals.

He stated he didn’t have the staff able to play, and that the staff has misplaced its defensive id. He stated he needs to be higher at his job.

Whereas these feedback all have some stage of fact to them, placing all of the blame on Mazulla lets the gamers off the hook for one of the vital embarrassing playoff performances in Celtics historical past.

The Celtics have two all-NBA gamers, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Yr, final yr’s Defensive Participant of the Yr, and a deep bench, they usually’re nonetheless getting stomped by a play-in staff.

“He’s being beneficiant,” Celtics ahead Al Horford stated of his coach’s feedback. “On the finish of the day, that falls on every participant. We all know what we have now to do. We knew the magnitude of this sport.”

Boston’s core has been collectively for six years and is on its third head coach. They’ve made the Japanese Convention Finals 4 occasions and have solely gotten previous it as soon as, final yr below Ime Udoka.

“I don’t even know the place to start out,” Jaylen Brown stated. “An apparent letdown. I really feel like we let our fan base, group down, we let ourselves down, and it was collective. We might level fingers, however in actuality, it was simply embarrassing.”

The Celtics’ finest gamers, Brown and Jayson Tatum, went a mixed 12-for-35 from the sector throughout the blowout loss. Boston shot 26 p.c from 3-point vary collectively.

“Yeah, tonight was powerful. I believe from the start of the sport, we have been turning the ball over,” Tatum stated. “We didn’t shoot the ball properly. They shot the ball extraordinarily properly. Simply form of felt like we by no means recovered, truthfully. That’s on all of us as a unit. We didn’t play properly in any respect.”

The Celtics have misplaced the defensive id they constructed with Udoka, Mazzulla stated after the sport. Brown agreed but additionally famous how properly the Warmth are taking pictures throughout this collection.

“Our protection hasn’t been particularly what it was final yr,” Brown stated. “However we’ve had great strides in several instructions, and we’ve been capable of finding methods to win basketball video games. I don’t suppose that was the problem right here. Yeah, we struggled to get stops, however to their credit score, they’re taking part in properly above their means. They’re balling proper now. I’ve received to provide them respect, Gabe Vincent, Martin, Strus, Duncan Robinson, guys that we should always have the ability to hold below management are taking part in their {expletive} off.”

The Celtics, who path the collection 3-0, will play the Warmth once more in Miami on Tuesday evening.