For many fans of the Boston Celtics, the team’s problems playing the right way in moments of highest pressure this season are far too much like what we saw from Boston last season. Those Celtics ultimately fell to the more disciplined Golden State Warriors in six games in the 2022 NBA Finals.
But for Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, this iteration of the team is its own animal.
“I don’t see too many similarities from last season and I try not to make those connections outside of the fact that we’re a different basketball team in a different situation with different personnel and I’m trying to accomplish the same goal,” said Mazzulla to Bally Sports’ Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.
“I feel regardless of what happens, we just have to fight to play our best basketball,” he explained.
The victory brought some encouraging signs for the Celtics, but questions remain about the team’s future adjustments. https://t.co/HxA8cbpSTD
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 25, 2023
“We have to know what that is and we have to do it more times and that to me is the most important thing. We’re not going to be perfect, but we have an identity of what we know what to do to win and we have to stick to it.”
Boston may be in a better position to emerge from a 3-0 series deficit in the playoffs than any of the other 150 teams who have previously tried now that they have a win under their belt as they head back to TD Garden.
But the margins are razor thin on every possession, meaning anything less than perfect execution could very well end in the offseason — and all the accompanying questions that will come with it — arriving earlier than anticipated for the Celtics.
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