Celtics finding ways to avoid boredom in final stretch of season: ‘Give ourselves challenges’

The Boston Celtics got bored last season.

On January 21, they were 35-12. They then lost three games in a row, kickstarting a rocky 22-13 to end the regular season. After their loss to the New York Knicks on January 26, Joe Mazzulla effectively admitted the Celtics’ lack of focus.

“Being a great team is really, really hard,” Mazzulla said. “You have to work at it every day. You’ve gotta do the small, boring things all the time… Sometimes that can be hard over a long season. You can’t get bored. You can’t get bored with the simple things.”

All-Star Weekend marked a pivotal moment for Boston last year, as they went into it on a 7-5 run, and they proceeded to go 5-5 in the 10 games afterward.

This year has been the complete opposite.

The Celtics went 11-2 in their 13 games before the break, and since then, they’ve continued their winning streak, now at nine games.

“Not to get bored,” Jrue Holiday said of Boston’s mindset at Friday’s shootaround. Obviously, winning is great, but we don’t want to get bored of winning. I think being able to kind of give ourselves challenges and things, marks in the game that we want to get to.

“If it’s defensively, 25 points a quarter, or offensively, running things that we worked on in shootaround that day. Those are things that we can really lock into.”

Mazzulla mentioned wanting to shore up some potential issues in the post-All-Star break stretch, which has likely given Boston something to focus on.

Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Whether it be winning without three-pointers against the Philadelphia 76ers, adjusting pick-n-roll coverages against Jalen Brunson, or switching up post looks to deter Nikola Vucevic, the Celtics have found ways to keep their minds working.

Perhaps most importantly, Boston has been able to find different pathways to victory this year.

“I definitely think that we have a lot of different ways of winning the tough games dogfights, and then being able to have those big blowout wins,” Holiday explained. “But, again, I don’t think we take any win for granted. Joe tells us every day that winning is hard, and we appreciate the win. So, no matter what, we’re always gonna love to win.”

The Celtics have one goal in mind - a championship - but in order to reach that mountaintop, they need to focus on each individual summit. They break things down game-to-game, quarter-to-quarter, possession-to-possession, only concentrating on what’s in front of them.

“I think there are times where we have lulls in the game where I don’t know if it’s– whatever it is. If it’s coming out in the beginning of the half where we’re not playing as well as we can,” said Holiday. “I think [in] times like that, we really need to lock in.

“Because I think for my season last year and Boston’s season last year, really just being able to take advantage of those moments in those times. Being able to lock in can be inconsistent. And knowing that even when we have lulls, we can fight through those together.”