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Jamal Collier, ESPN
BOSTON — Celtics guard Marcus Good supplied additional readability on his pointed feedback following Sport 6 of the Jap Convention semifinals, when he mentioned coach Joe Mazzulla has “rightfully” confronted criticism in his first 12 months main the staff.
“Rightfully so in the truth that identical to us once we go on the market and we do not play recreation, or we do not do issues we all know we’re able to and we ought to be doing, we get held accountable,” Good mentioned after observe Saturday afternoon. “Joe’s not on the court docket, so he will get held accountable in a different way than we do. And that is with sure issues that he would possibly do or won’t do.”
With their season on the road in Sport 6, the Celtics made a vital adjustment by inserting Robert Williams III into the beginning lineup and going again to the unit they used most of final season on the best way to an look within the NBA Finals. Celtics gamers responded to the change with roaring approval, together with Good, who mentioned he was ecstatic in regards to the change.
Good used that lineup change to notice that Mazzulla, the Celtics’ 34-year-old first-year coach, was nonetheless studying. However Good continued to stay supportive of Mazzulla’s decision-making.
“On the finish of the day it is his choice,” Good mentioned. “If it really works, we do not say nothing. If it would not, then clearly you must have a look at it. That is the enjoyable of taking the criticism and shifting on, being coachable, with the ability to be taught. The nice gamers, the nice coaches, they’re capable of be taught.
“Even when they make a mistake, they do not let it deter him. They maintain going they usually be taught from it.”
Mazzulla has caught criticism all through this second-round sequence in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers — for his timeout administration on the finish of Boston’s Sport 4 loss and after the Celtics had been routed at house in Sport 5 to fall behind 3-2 within the sequence.
Good mentioned gamers have an open dialogue with Mazzulla and he permits them to return to him with solutions. However even when a number of Celtics gamers had been in favor of Williams’ insertion into the beginning lineup, none of them mentioned that they had a gathering with Mazzulla to affect the change.
Williams is predicted to stay within the beginning lineup for Sport 7 between the Celtics and Sixers on Sunday in Boston.
Requested what led to the change, Mazzulla responded merely, “We had been trailing 3-2 within the sequence.”
“We’re all about profitable, no matter it takes,” Good mentioned. “There are issues that we do not see on the court docket that Joe sees, and there is additionally issues that we see that Joe would not see. We’re right here to assist one another.”
Mazzulla was not the Celtics’ head coach final season once they received a pair of Sport 7s — in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Warmth — en path to the NBA Finals, however he was a member of Ime Udoka’s employees.
So Good reiterated that though that is Mazzulla’s first time on the helm, he feels just like the coach has been part of the journey with the remainder of this Boston core.
“He is been right here by means of quite a lot of our onerous occasions and our struggles,” Good mentioned. “So now that he has the job it is nothing new. Joe loves us and we love Joe. We imagine in Joe and Joe believes in us.”