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. Actually, he was vehemently in opposition to it.
“I hate breaks,” Mazzulla mentioned. “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 Japanese Convention Finals. On account of their dominance, they’ve to attend over per week earlier than taking over the Dallas Mavericks within the NBA Finals.
Boston’s spectacular run via the playoffs has come to a screeching halt on the pinnacles of its successes. Every time they’re using the excessive of a sequence win, they’ve been compelled to sit down idly by and wait for his or her subsequent opponent.
However the Celtics are doing extra than simply ready.
“Something may be good or unhealthy for you, relying on how you utilize it,” Mazzulla mentioned. “Time may very well be good, it may very well be unhealthy. All the things goes into how you utilize it, the way you weaponize it. So, we’re weaponizing our time proper now.”
Bodily, the Celtics will observe. Gamers will undergo their regular exercises, and the coaches will assist them ramp up forward of the Finals. However there’s additionally an important psychological component to the break.
“Simply stress-free. Getting out of the combat. Letting your emotional [and] your psychological guard down. You simply acquired to maintain these issues up,” Mazzulla mentioned. “So, you create havoc in observe, you simply stress the small print, and also you overwork them within the movie room, and also you simply do every thing you possibly can to verify the fellows 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,” mentioned Mazzulla. “They’re professionals. They’ve performed rather a lot. So, I don’t actually need to do a lot due to who they’re.”
In lower than per week, the Celtics will probably be taking part in within the greatest video games of the season. That is every thing 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 sweet 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,” mentioned Jayson Tatum.
“I want it did begin somewhat bit earlier so we are able to get after it. Plenty 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 will depend on that mindset.
So, because the ready recreation persists, the Celtics are counting on every thing that has gotten them up to now. As a result of as soon as the video games restart, they’re the identical issues that may assist them run via the end line.
“This [break] is a protracted one, however I feel simply the stuff that we did within the earlier rounds undoubtedly will assist us simply to mentally put together, and we type of know what to do with the day without work,” mentioned Derrick White. “Coaches have performed a superb job of specializing in what we have to concentrate on, and we’re on the market simply competing and attempting to have that proper mindset every day.
“So, we talked all yr about not skipping steps, and it’s no completely different now.”
