Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart x Joe Mazzulla React To Celtics GM6 vs 76ers | May 11, 2023

Were you talking to Jason throughout tonight to try to get him going? And then what got him going? And how, obviously, huge was that for you? Yeah, I mean, just his poise got him going. And so the standard that is set for him to where if he's not scoring, he's not playing good basketball is wrong. And so he's had multiple games this series. And when he's at his best, he doesn't need to score. And I thought his communication to his teammates, I thought his defensive intensity, and I thought just his, even his force is trying to drive the ball, kept him in the game. And so he plays with a level of poise regardless of how the game is going. Joe, you pulled him aside after that timeout with about five minutes left. How offensive were you to him and to him then? What kind of offense were you trying to fill in him with? I love you. Yep. Yeah, that's it. Joe, can you talk about the impact Marcus had on this game? Both ends of the floor. And that one play early in the first quarter where he rips the ball away from Embiid, did that help set the tone for you guys? I just thought he brought a level of, he got the pace going for us from start to finish. And he did a great job of keeping us poised. And he was the quarterback of our defense, him and Rob. And so when Smart can dictate the pace like that and get us into offense and get us into spacing and just play with that level of toughness, it was contagious. And so he's one of our emotional leaders. And he does that for us. That one play in particular, do you think that helped establish your tone? Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, it did, for sure. The review on the free throws, Embiid took the free throws on the back of the show. What led to that replay? And was that a moment for Tatum to just kind of take a deep breath there and hit those threes out? I have no idea. They just missed the, I don't know if someone told him that. But no, like I said, with him, it's just he stays poised. And he stays into the game. And I thought he played a well-rounded game regardless of the fact that he wasn't scoring. And then it was his time. And he delivered. You talked about playing free or breathing after left. Did you just sense any tightness that kind of relieves as this game went on with them? No, I saw a sense of urgency. I saw an intensity. And I saw a togetherness that the guys have shown for as long as they've been playing together. Joe, they basically didn't hit a shot all French time. You had Barkus kind of switching into almost every single roll. Just after trying to defend their pick roll the entire game, you guys were almost switching almost everything. And how crucial is smart to being able to execute that kind of complicated coverage? Yeah, he just talks. His ability to guard different guys and recognize where the help should come from on the floor. And it was him. But it was Jalen. It was all of them, really. Like I said, there was a level of intensity and a level of togetherness and connectivity that the guys had to where we were able to communicate different stuff throughout the game and change match-ups, change coverages. What did you think allowed you guys to stay together? It looked like you might be cracking down the base in front of them. Yeah, I thought the run came because of just our poise on the offensive end. There was four or five possessions that we just drove into the paint. And they took it from us. And they were able to get out and transition. And then they were able to get out and dictate the pace of the game. And so I thought the difference between tonight and game five was when we had empty possessions in game five, we stopped competing on the defensive end. And when we had empty possessions tonight, we played just as, if not harder, on the defensive end. And I think that's a key. I know it's a year apart. But the fact that you did this last year, came back from the brink in Milwaukee. Do you think any of that helped at all? I mean, all the experiences help, I think, to not have a level of panic or whatever the case may be. And so in moments like this, the guys do a good job of pulling together. What do you like most of the end of that, particularly the start, and then even kind of throughout, just have a longer look for him? And he seemed really comfortable on both sides. Yeah, he's the kind of guy that just brings a level of joy to his teammates and a level of defensive, I don't know, just support to where the guys can be a little bit more aggressive. The guys can gamble a little bit or just kind of just play the game. And so he does a great job of communicating. He does a great job of just giving us that length in athleticism. I thought he was huge tonight. How much does just having him out there with Al together raise up your guys' defense to a different level? Yeah, it just gives us size, athleticism, and versatility from a match-up standpoint, and from the ability to play different coverages. You always talk about games like this, keep shooting. How hard is it to actually keep shooting when the shots aren't falling? And is this finish from Tatum kind of like a justification of if you keep shooting, this can happen? It's not hard to keep shooting when you're missing. It's hard to forget about the miss and play defense. And so that's what I'm most proud about him tonight was I thought it was one of his second best well-rounded game, the one after game four, where he just played the game. And as a team, it's the same thing. Like I said, the difference in game five to game six is when we missed empty possessions, we had affected our effort. And so that's the thing is you've got to keep shooting, but you have to keep playing at the other end knowing, for the most part, we're fighting for great shots. This was your first elimination game as a head coach. You go with a seven-man rotation and then end up winning with your energy and running, defense, stuff like that. So I guess, what was the challenge of being in this kind of moment of making sure that you and the entire team maintained their poise and still executed? I mean, there wasn't any different challenge than facing elimination being the end of a season, whether you're a player or coach. Anytime your back's against the wall, you just rely on your locker room, rely on the people around you and each other. And so I haven't been in that position as a coach, but I have as a player. And I know what it feels like. And in those moments, you just rely on the guys, their experience, their togetherness. Joe, how proud of you are your guys? Getting booed at home can't be easy for anybody. But to bounce back and have a performance like this in an elimination game. Yeah, like I said, it's all about them. I'm proud of them because they stuck together. They didn't overreact. If anything, they responded well. And so we've shown that we can do it. And game seven is going to present the same challenge, regardless of if it's home or away. Joe, Tatum's struggles is obvious. He might have turned mental to the point. You know it's mental. It's not physical. He's not doing anything wrong. He's just missing shots. What's the balance of trying to motivate him, but also get him out of his own head? Tell him I love him. That's it? Yeah. It's a pretty powerful statement. I do. Yeah. Multiple times. Over and over again. And the rest of the team. Thank you. Questions for Marcus? Marcus, what was the approach coming in? For us, it was do or die. You know, it's an elimination game. And there was no excuses. We had to come in and be ready to leave it all on the floor. You see that Jason's struggling early. How much of that was just you saying, OK, we've got to bide our time. I've got to do whatever I can to hold this up while Jason figures things out? No, that's the beauty of it. You know, we've got a lot of versatile guys on this team that can get it going. And we all know Jalen and Jason, what they can do. But so does everybody else. And everybody else's objective is to stop them. So they're going to have nights where they're slow. And that's when you lean on other guys. And tonight was one of those nights. And they just kept telling me to be as aggressive as I needed to be. And just continue to make the right play. Sometimes that was for me, and that was sometimes for others. And then JT did what he did late and picked it up for us. Just let them know, this could be our last opportunity. We don't want to get off this course saying, I should have done more, I could have done more. And then we pissed at ourselves. We've got to go out there. It's got to be a dogfight. You've got to be ready to scrap. You've got to be able to bleed. You've got to be willing to take a shot to the face, to do whatever it takes to win. When he's struggling shooting the way he is, what's your message to him? What are you saying to him? Are you going to try to pick him up? Just continue telling him he's one of the best players in this league. He makes the big bucks for a reason. Let it go. It's going to come to you. Just let the game come to you. Take what they give you. Don't make it as hard on yourself. And just do what you do. And once he starts to just calm down, as you've seen, he started to get into a rhythm, and he started to feel good. I think sometimes for him, and a lot of us, he gets into that mode where he thinks, I have to do this. I have to do that. And he wants to be so perfect. And it's a good thing, and it's a bad thing. And sometimes, you've got to lean on your teammates, and that's what we're here for, to let them know you're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. We just need you to be the best you can be, and that's all we can ask for. What did you think when you heard about the lineup change? I was ecstatic about it. To be able to have Rob in there, he changes the game a lot. Being able to have a lob threat, a rim threat, to be able to protect the rim on the other end, he's huge for us. And I was proud to have him on the court. And that just goes to show, Joe's learning, just like all of us. I know he's been killed a lot, rightfully so. He needs to make some adjustments, and he did that. And that's all you can ask for, just continue to be the best he can be. And it takes everybody. It's a full team effort. You were in this spot a year ago, down 3-2. How much did that help you to know you could do it? A lot. Just talking to the guys. Deja vu for us. We've been here. We've been in the closeout game where we messed up at home and have to go on the road and get it back. So there's no reason for us to be stressed out. Just go out there and do what we do. Joe, like you just said, he's taken some criticism, rightfully so. As a team, when he's learning on the fly, but it's the playoffs, and this is kind of like your championship window, what's it like trying to help him along while trying to win on the floor? It's different, but it helps us as players. Because when you think about it in the grand scheme, we're teaching him as well, and we're teaching ourselves. We get to learn more about ourselves. It allows Jason, it allows Jalen, it allows me to be more vocal on the court and to go figure things out, and we're doing it together. So it's not going to be perfect. Joe's not perfect. He was put in a very tough situation this year, and he's doing the best he can. That's all we can ask for. We're going to continue to go out there and work our tails off for him, just like he's going to go out there and continue to work his tail off for us. What kind of challenge is that, though, like when you're out there, we go back to game four at the end and stuff like that. I mean, is that a function of that? And how do you continue that and win? Yeah, I mean, it's hard, you know? But the team that we have, you know, the group of guys that we have, we're experienced. And, you know, we're the ones on the court. Joe can only do so much. You know, Joe does a great job, and the staff does a great job of putting us in the right positions. We just got to go out there and execute. I know he takes a lot of the wrath from us, but he's not on the court. So, you know, we're on the court and we have to be able to adjust, even if he's not doing it as to the standard that we would want or, you know, everybody would want. We see what's going on and we have to help him. There were a lot of times in the game where you were smiling. Even after a foul, even after a missed free throw, it seemed like, you know, you were upbeat rather than clearly frustrated or anything. Is that a common approach? Yeah, you got to. You know, you want to be just fluid. You know, we're all tight and, you know, not smiling. You can see us not enjoying the game. It shows. Our play shows for it. When we're out there just enjoying the game, having fun, enjoying playing for one another and enjoying winning together, that shows as well. And it's a positive thing to see. As you can see, JT starts to get hot. He starts to smile. You know, he sees us smiling. So that helps. Believe it or not, that type of energy is very, very contagious. You were just- Being that old-fashioned as you guys have been over the years, how much of a lot of help do you get for game seven for the team? Tremendously. You know, we're the more experienced team. It's not going to be easy though. But we are the more experienced team in these situations and we got to go out there and show it. Marcus. Hi. You used that dogfight quote after last game. Said it almost verbatim tonight. And you were just saying all the stuff about the situation Joe came into. How much do you take it upon yourself personally in these huge moments that it's like, it's your job to set the tenor for this team? A lot. You know, my teammates look for me for that. You know, my coaching staff looks to me for that. It's one of the greatest things about me is to be able to come in and change the game with just the way I play, both offensively and defensively. And we got a guy like me that can do that. You know, it helps other guys. It helps D. White get into a rhythm. It helps Malcolm get in the rhythm. You know, it's hard. It's hard to play this game. It's hard to play in the playoffs. And you know, for a guy like me, my job is to make sure that everybody's confidence is up and everybody's upbeat. Obviously, Jason's big finish is gonna get a lot of attention, but realistically, when he starts one for 14, a lot of times that's gonna put you guys in a bad spot. How did you guys, throughout the game, you know, obviously had a good start, the 10-point lead early. How'd you kind of overcome it and kind of bide your time? We just kept making play after play. You know, we didn't hang our head. You know, he missed a shot, he comes down, he gets blocks. He missed a shot, he comes down, he gets rebounds. You know, he changes and alters shots on the defensive end. He's not making shots. He'd come down, he's finding guys. We just continue to make the right play, time after time, no matter who it is. And things started to open up for us. And that's what we just gotta continue to do. You know, understand, it's not gonna be perfect. You're not gonna make every shot. The one thing you control, though, is your effort on both ends. And that's what we gotta do. Final question for Marcus. You, sir. What do you like about this group, Marcus, and what is it about you guys that in these moments, that's what? Our tenacity, you know? For some reason, you know, we do play well with our backs against the wall. But being able to have that versatility, you know, to sub guys in, you know, to change up the lineup, and to be able to play and everybody on the court affects the game winningly. That's the biggest thing for us. And we gotta understand that we have that, we've been doing that, and we're great when we do that. And we understand that you start seeing plays like tonight. Thank you, Marcus. Thank you, guys. Jalen, Joe talked at the last game about breathing, playing free. Do you guys feel tightness in game five, or even tonight, for periods out there? And how do you try to relax you and Jason out there? You just come out and play basketball. It's something that we've all been doing for a long time. And sometimes you, you know, put a little bit too much pressure on yourself. Just come out and breathe, have fun, and play basketball. You get a little uptight a little bit, but, you know, for the most part tonight, we just fought, and we was able to pull out a win. Did you feel the need to say anything to Jason tonight, or did you just let him? Oh, no, I said some stuff to him, you know. Keep going, I believe in you. You know, whoever was on, I told them they can't guard you. Stop being apprehensive and just go. You know, and, you know, if you asked him, he'd probably say that's just exactly how I drew it up. All right, but it don't gotta be pretty. You just gotta get it done. What was your reaction just hearing that Rob was gonna be the starting five, and what impact do you think that made for you guys? I made a tremendous, tremendous difference, and you could just see it. You know, it don't take a professional eye to see the difference that Rob make. We put him kind of similar in that role he played last year, where he could just be, you know, trust his instincts, make plays. Even him tipping the ball out on rebounds and stuff like that, the role, like, I felt like Rob felt a lot more comfortable out there in that double big lineup. Surprised you, it kind of took, he hadn't seen that plan in much of the series at all. Was it a surprise you decided to get to it for you guys? No, the playoffs is about, it's a game of chess. You know, it's adjustments. You know, they watch the game, they make adjustments. You know, we take stuff away, they come back the next day and we make adjustments. It's all about, you know, that chess match, and now it's 3-3. So game seven, we gotta come with it. What happened when you slipped? Were you hurt? You stayed there for a while, and what happened? Yeah, slipped on the floor. I guess it was a wet spot. I expected them to clean it up after they did and tweak my knee a little bit, but, you know, a couple of days rest, I'll be all right. Telling each other in that moment? Just to, you know, keep the state of course. You know, it was times in this game where, you know, they went on a run, they took the lead. We didn't panic. You know, we just stayed the course, trusted each other, and we was able to pull it out towards the end. But it was just all, we all looked each other in the eyes and was like, we, it was no doubt. And that was the most important thing that we had to, there was no doubt in our mind that we had to leave with a win today. Just talking about the chess match. You were talking about those peel switches before in the locker room. This, like, harding them beat, pick and roll has been the big puzzle you guys have had to solve throughout the series. So I guess, how crucial was it that if you guys were gonna win a game, it had to be on defense, it had to be with your, like, mental fortitude? Yeah, it's, defense has been the story for us, and I think all our wins, they've been around 100 points or under. So we figure out how to get stops. You know, it's tough, that pick and roll is hard. You know, depending on how they officiate in the game, I thought they did a good job tonight by not, you know, letting some of those guys flop, who, you know, are known to do that. They didn't give them some of those plays, and they thought they were gonna get them because they were at home, and the ref stayed solid. And that's great, because that's not basketball. Let the tougher team play, you know, keep playing the game, and we was able to figure out how to get stops down the line. You're in that third quarter stretch, and you talk about keeping your boys in all of that, but how, how do you do that when it looks like things are starting to fall apart? You have a couple of turnovers, you have a couple of empty possessions. How do you get through that point when the momentum at home and all that? Just getting stops. That's what it came down to. Like, we had a, I thought we had a ugly game offensively, where we turned it over a lot. We made some bad reads, but, you know, we were able to still get stops and turn them over a little bit, speed them up, you know, and they missed some open shots to help us out a little bit, but getting stops, you know, was the ability to help us stay into the game. And we were able to pull away in there. Caelan, you got some good news yesterday on All-NBA. Does that give you any clarity about your future? Obviously, that's a tremendous honor, but all of my focus right now is just trying to help my team win and get advanced in the playoffs. And that's what I'm currently focused on. What does it feel to be named second-team All-NBA? Say that again? What does it mean to you? It meant a lot. You know, I put a lot of work into my craft to get better each and every year, to help my team, lead my team, add to winning, to get acknowledged from, you know, the world or the basketball world is refreshing. And for that, I'm grateful. What would it be like to be named second-team All-NBA? That's a great question. I'm hoping that it's going to be loud and it's going to be rocking, you know? Celtics fans, y'all love to call us out, right? So I'm going to call you guys out this time. Like, energy in the garden has been okay at best, all playoffs. Game seven, if you're there or if you're not there, if you're in your home, if you're watching at a bar, if you're watching down the street at a friend's house, I don't care. I need you to be up. I need you to come with the energy because we're going to need every bit of it. No excuses. We need everybody. So I'm calling you guys out. Let's make sure the garden is ready to go. How was it like back here to let in the energy and everything to where you expected? It was good. But, you know, when the garden gets going, there's nothing like it. So I'm expecting game seven to be a great basketball environment. And I'm looking forward to seeing you guys there. Thank you, Jalen. Jason. Jason, I know you've had your share of games. You've played a ton of games in this league. Have you ever had a night like tonight where just nothing went right at sea and then you suddenly turned it around? And how did you kind of keep your sanity during this? You know, I got to give a lot of credit to my teammates. Right? They were extremely vocal throughout the game. Right? Encouraging. I mean, being transparent, that ---- was frustrating. Right? You want to win so bad. You want to play so well. And, you know, shots not falling, things just not necessarily going your way. And you want it. You want it so bad. But try and stay present. Try and stay in the moment. Try and do other things. And every time out, every huddle, you know, my teammates telling me the next one going in, keep, you know, rebounding. Keep getting assists. Keep getting blocks. Keep impacting the game. It's going to come. So that, you know, that was helpful. And just believing that, you know, the next one is going in. It's cliches. You know, that ---- sounds. It's kind of as simple as that. And really all it took was one to kind of like, you know, get that off my back. And, you know, try to help the team, you know, come out here with a win. You just said it was frustrating, but midway through that fourth quarter, they won for 14 or something. What's kind of going through your head in that moment? What are you thinking? Are you trying to motivate yourself? Like, what's going on in your head now? Shit, hit a shot. But, you know, so many things going on in the course of the game. And, you know, I've played a lot of games. I know it's not all about scoring. So in that moment, right, you know, still be aggressive, make the right play. You know, I just kept looking at the time. You know, I just kept telling myself, I got time. I got time to make a difference. And I believed that throughout the whole game. Were they doing anything defensively, Jason, or was it? It was just a tough night. You know what I mean? Obviously they, they're not going to make it easy on me, but, you know, I missed a couple of layups, open shots, things like that. So it was just, it was just frustrating until it turned around. At the end, just what are you feeling in that moment? You know, I was, I was excited. I was excited and he just kept telling me, that's what you do, you know, be that killer. And, you know, just having that encouragement, you know, from my teammates, you know, throughout the course of the game and, you know, believing in one another, even when it, you know, it's tough to believe in somebody when they only made one shot. But, you know, I know the guys, you know, believe in me all the way to the clock hit zero. And the way that we just competed, right. You know, they went on the run and entered that third. The building was, you know, loud. The fans were into it. And for us to go on that run, the last five and a half minutes, and defense won us the game. We held them to 86 points with all the great, you know, scores they got over there. That was big. That was big for our team. Did you have a chance for you to just take a breath there when they were reviewing the free throw? Take a breath? Yeah. I mean, I didn't know what was going on. I never seen take two free throws, two points away. And I just was confused of, you know, what was going on. Your walk-up interview, is that the way you tell yourself? Yeah. You know, I truly believe that. And I like, I know that. And, you know, it's easy to tell yourself that when, you know, you got 40 or 35. But I think that's, you know, shows character when you can tell yourself that when you've only hit one shot, when, you know, things not going your way. You know, you gotta be the same person, have the same morals, the same character, you know, when things are up and down. And I just kept telling myself that, you know, I believe in myself, you know, until it turned around. Jason, Dave, please, real quick. Moving forward, you've had, you had this game, you had the rough start and all that. You were able to pull out a bit and you were able to get the win. Does that take any pressure off of you moving forward? You said, okay, I don't have to come in if I miss the first couple of shots in the next game. Do you feel better about that and say, okay, I can get through this a little bit easier? Oh, I mean, I don't want to do this ---- again. That was, hopefully that's a one-time thing. You know, hopefully I start off better, things like that. But if this is what it takes for us to win, you know, I go hope for whatever. But, you know, Sunday is obviously a big game. Game seven. And I'm excited to go back and kind of like redeem ourself in front of our home crowd. You know, I'm excited to see them. Yeah, I know that the building is going to be rocking. We need everybody there. Everybody full of energy, because we're going to need it. And, you know, I know they're going to, I know they're going to bring it. You know, we've got the best fans in the world. You know, I had to, for 43 minutes, I had to hear him tell me how bad I was. So it kind of felt good to see everybody getting out they seat, leaving early. You know, in that moment. You said defense on the game. What did Rob add in the starting lineup? Rob's presence, right? You know, even if he's not blocking shots, his presence of, you know, contesting shots, you know, altering shots, you know, that makes a difference. And his activity, getting offensive rebounds, you know, having a lot of threat out there. Rob, you know, Rob played big today. Joe said he's told you he loves you during the fourth quarter. Has he done that before? And did that impact on you in some way? Your coach says he loves you? Yeah, he told me that before. And, you know, me and Joe have, we talk, you know, I don't want to say separately, but, you know, there's moments throughout, you know, this season, things going great when things not going great. Sometimes we just pull each other to the side. And I've done that to him, right? You know, in his first year, he's done an unbelievable job. And, you know, I know there was a lot of questions and doubts. And, you know, I've told him a lot of times, like, yo, you know, I got you, I got your back. You know, we in this together. And, you know, I love that, you know, relationship that, you know, me and Joe have. Thank you, Jason.