The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with a 58-25 record, taking ownership of the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference led by a first-year head coach in Joe Mazzulla who spent half of the season as the interim head coach. After winning 70 percent of the regular season, Mazzulla’s greatest test will be in the first round of the playoffs.

It’s been revealed that Mazzulla famously created the defensive game plans against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, which led Boston to advance to the Finals. His knowledge of his team from being in the background since 2019 when he became an assistant under then head coach Brad Stevens is invaluable and it shows.

Stevens always had a vision in mind of Mazzulla being a head coach. From his days at Fairmont State to being with the Maine Red Claws, Mazzull’s always been on Stevens’ radar. There wasn’t one moment of hesitation from Stevens when he was forced to make a coaching decision in the immediate aftermath of former head coach Ime Udoka. 

Here’s what Stevens said about Mazzulla on Easter Sunday ahead of their regular season finale.

“He was gonna be really good. That’s been pretty obvious for a long time. He’s been consistent in his own approach, win (or) lose. He comes back, and he works the next day; he wants to grow, (and) he wants to improve. He demands that of the team. I think he does a good job of picking what the emphasis needs to be in the big picture, and also in those small moments, the snippets of time, the snippets of games when something is waning a little, he does a good job of figuring that out and making that a priority to improve.”

Considering the body of work we’ve seen from him in the regular season, and with the positive endorsements from Stevens since day one, it’s hard to see the Celtics losing a seven-game series in the playoffs. Mazzulla focuses too much on the little things, emphasizing the smallest variables he thinks are holding his team back from their full potential.

To that point, Mazzulla’s reflected on his coaching philosophies, revisiting his original theory on saving timeouts and other in-game adjustments that he’s now learned along the way of the regular season.

“He’s calling the game as he sees it now, even more so than before, right? So, he’s quicker to stop a run. He’s quicker to do things. He may stop the game so he can make a sub. Or he may let a game go so (that) they can’t make a sub.”

The first round caching battle for Mazzulla will be against Quin Snyder, as the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Miami Heat on Tuesday, becoming the No. 7 seed for an inviting matchup with Boston. 

It’s worth mentioning this matchup is revisionist history, as the Celtics and Hawks played in the first round of the 2008 playoffs, which led to the Celtics winning their 17th NBA Championship. Boston also went 3-0 against Atlanta this season.

Game one is Saturday at the TD garden with tipoff set for 3:30 PM.

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