Heading into the 2024 NBA All-Star break, the Boston Celtics have been rolling. A 50-point win over the Brooklyn Nets marked their sixth in a row. However Joe Mazzulla wasn’t prepared for a break. In actual fact, he was vehemently in opposition to it.
“I hate breaks,” Mazzulla stated. “I want there wasn’t even halftime.”
Quick-forward a number of months, and the Celtics are coping with extra breaks than ever. 5-game sequence in opposition to the Miami Warmth and Cleveland Cavaliers have been adopted by a sweep of the Indiana Pacers within the Jap Convention Finals. Because of their dominance, they’ve to attend over per week earlier than taking up the Dallas Mavericks within the NBA Finals.
Boston’s spectacular run by way of the playoffs has come to a screeching halt on the pinnacles of its successes. Every time they’re driving the excessive of a sequence win, they’ve been pressured to take a seat idly by and wait for his or her subsequent opponent.
However the Celtics are doing extra than simply ready.
“Something might be good or unhealthy for you, relying on how you employ it,” Mazzulla stated. “Time might be good, it might be unhealthy. Every part goes into how you employ it, the way you weaponize it. So, we’re weaponizing our time proper now.”
Bodily, the Celtics will apply. Gamers will undergo their regular exercises, and the coaches will assist them ramp up forward of the Finals. However there may be additionally an important psychological ingredient to the break.
“Simply enjoyable. Getting out of the combat. Letting your emotional [and] your psychological guard down. You simply acquired to maintain these issues up,” Mazzulla stated. “So, you create havoc in apply, you simply stress the main points, and also you overwork them within the movie room, and also you simply do all the pieces you’ll be able to to ensure the blokes keep within the combat.”
Photograph By Matt Stone/Boston Herald
Concurrently, the gamers are able to staying locked in on their very own.
“I belief these guys,” stated Mazzulla. “They’re professionals. They’ve finished lots. So, I don’t actually should do a lot due to who they’re.”
In lower than per week, the Celtics will likely be enjoying within the largest video games of the season. That is all the pieces they’ve labored for all yr. They’re on the entrance doorstep. However they’ll’t play the video games till the video games arrive.
The pure nervousness of ready has set in, and Boston is extra keen now than ever to get on the courtroom and compete.
“Simply understanding the second that we’re in. Clearly, having a few days or 9 days off is nice in your physique and for everyone to get wholesome, however we’re within the NBA Finals, and we’re additionally anxious and excited to play,” stated Jayson Tatum.
“I want it did begin somewhat bit earlier so we are able to get after it. Quite a lot of guys have been right here earlier than, so we perceive the magnitude of the second. Staying sharp, staying contemporary, staying prepared.”
All season, the Celtics have handled each recreation the identical. Their simplification course of has allowed them to remain within the second, focusing solely on the duty at hand. Their robot-like dominance of the common season and playoffs relies on that mindset.
So, because the ready recreation persists, the Celtics are counting on all the pieces that has gotten them thus far. As a result of as soon as the video games restart, they’re the identical issues that can assist them run by way of the end line.
“This [break] is a protracted one, however I feel simply the stuff that we did within the earlier rounds positively will assist us simply to mentally put together, and we form of know what to do with the day without work,” stated Derrick White. “Coaches have finished a great job of specializing in what we have to concentrate on, and we’re on the market simply competing and making an attempt to have that proper mindset every day.
“So, we talked all yr about not skipping steps, and it’s no totally different now.”
