BOSTON — As nobody has come up with a Top 100 Greatest Timeouts in Sports History, would it be OK if we submitted Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, Game 1, 2024 NBA Finals, for consideration?
You be the judge. For while the Celtics’ 107-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night at TD Garden doesn’t hint at much in the way of drama and late-night intrigue, Boston was leading by just 8 points with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter. Which is when Mazzulla called for the timeout. For context, it should be noted that Boston led by as many as 29 points in the first half, what with the fully armed and operational battle station known as Kristaps Porziņģis coming off the bench and scoring 11 points in the first quarter alone.
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Imagine: Up by 29, and then up by 8.
But then came a 14-0 Celtics run that effectively ended the Mavericks’ hopes for a never-to-be-forgotten NBA Finals victory. For those looking for even more context, let’s not forget that one of the biggest criticisms leveled at Mazzulla last year, when Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens plucked him from a pack of obscure lieutenants and handed him the coaching keys, was the how and the why of Mazzulla’s timeouts. He was criticized for calling them too soon, too late, too often, and, to be honest, it was one of the reasons Mazzulla’s critics wanted him one and done.
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So, yes, if the guy calls a timeout after a 29-point lead has been frittered away to an 8-point lead, and if the result of that is an exciting 14-0 run, that’s big news. Especially if the 14-0 run is stitched together by one of those beloved-by-coaches Total Team Efforts, this one including a dunk by Porziņģis and 3-pointers by Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Add three free throws by Brown, and, presto, you’ve got your 14-0 run and a timeout screaming for a documentary, even if the coach who called it didn’t do much screaming at all.
What did Mazzulla say?
“I don’t know,” Porziņģis said, “but Joe always gives us the right message. He can be emotionless if that’s what we need. He can come in completely even keel and give us the right message and what to focus on. And then he’ll give us some motivation if that’s what we need, some energy. I think he was just even keel and giving us some answers to what we needed to do out there. And that was it. We trust him with his leadership.”
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For Porziņģis, trust in Mazzulla extended beyond the timeout. Game 1 of the NBA Finals turned out to be the setting for Porziņģis to return to action after being out since April 29 with a calf injury. But rather than simply press a button that would have had Porziņģis in the starting lineup, Mazzulla kept him on the bench for about the first five minutes of the game.
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“We had a conversation,” Porziņģis said. “He just came up to me. He knew I was going to be fine with whatever. He just told me, what do you think about this, and I said, ‘Of course, let’s do it,’ and that’s it. It was no big deal. I trust Joe and he trusts me.”
Except it was a big deal, given the uncertainty of Porziņģis’ status. And the timely timeout absolutely was a big deal. The math says so … even if Mazzulla was reticent to say so.
Asked what he said to his players during the timeout, Mazzulla, trying to be coy, replied, “Which … the one where they cut it to eight?”
Yes, Joe, that timeout.
“Yeah, listen, it’s the NBA Finals, you’re playing against a great team and they’re going to make runs,” he said. “It’s just building on awareness to why the run was made and, you know, that team does a great job of making defensive adjustments on the fly and sometimes it takes us a possession or two to recognize that.
“So it’s just understanding the run, what could we do to change it, and how can we get better coming out of that. I thought the guys’ poise out of that timeout was big. (The Mavericks) are going to go on more runs and we’re going to have to fight through ‘em.”
And then Mazzulla did a breakdown of the timeout by pointing out that “… out of the three minutes, two-and-a-half of it they’re by themselves. They communicate well with each other, they have great relationships, so I’m sure during the time the coaches are meeting that they’re having that communication with each other.”
But somebody had to call the timeout that led to Brown, Horford and Porziņģis doing all that communicating with each other.
It was Mazzulla who did that.
Brown’s take on what the players were saying to each other while the coaches were doing their thing: “Just breathe, just keep playing basketball, if you have a shot that’s open, take it with confidence. No turnovers. Take care off the basketball and just play our game. We gotta get some stops.”
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Has a lot happened with the Celtics over the past year or what? Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday were added to the roster, Derrick White cut off his hair, legendary play-by-play voice Mike Gorman retired … and, oh, by the way, now we have Joe Mazzulla rebranding himself as the wizard of the timeout.
(Photo of Jayson Tatum talking with coach Joe Mazzulla: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)