The Boston Celtics did not seem especially perturbed by their low level of effort on defense for much of their 104-91 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night. And their historic paucity of free throws reflected the force most Celtics players deployed on offense, with Boston evidently allergic to attacking a packed paint.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla did not seem worried about it despite the loss, and even seemed to relish the adversity a bit in comments to the AP. “That was the first time where like the game wasn’t going our way since I don’t remember when, you know what I mean?,” asked Mazzulla.
“To me, that’s a good opportunity, to play through that, find different ways to create runs, find different ways to just build stuff on either end of the floor,” he added. “I thought it was a good situation for us to be in because we hadn’t seen it in a while.”
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And while those words might sound borderline arrogant, the Celtics carried a five-game win streak and a 15-game lead over the Bucks in the East standings before the loss in a season they’ve never had more than 2 in a row.
Known for protecting players and rarely saying anything negative about his club in public, this was less that sort of posturing and, in our opinion, a moment of simple honesty in a game with no real stakes for the Celtics.
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