{"id":21772,"date":"2024-12-30T09:44:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T09:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21772"},"modified":"2024-12-30T09:44:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T09:44:23","slug":"breaking-celtics-joe-mazzullas-surprising-reaction-to-tough-upcoming-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21772","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Celtics&#8217; Joe Mazzulla\u2019s surprising reaction to tough upcoming schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p class=\"dek prose mb-2.5 italic text-secondary\">The Celtics&#8217; schedule isn&#8217;t getting any easier, but Joe Mazzulla doesn&#8217;t seem to mind.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex-row flex-wrap items-center text-primary\">\n<div class=\"author-link mr-2.5 flex items-center text-sm\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Celtics-Joe-Mazzullas-surprising-.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"Joe Mazzulla yelling or looking happy with air bubble reading &quot;Can't wait&quot;\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>BOSTON \u2014 After falling to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, 123-114, the Boston Celtics are 2-4 in their last six games. Despite these recent struggles, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is looking forward to his team&#8217;s schedule becoming even harder in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>Following the nine-point loss, which is tied for Boston&#8217;s largest margin of defeat this season, Mazzulla was asked how his guys are planning on handling an upcoming road trip featuring four games in six days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m actually really excited about it,\u201d he answered. \u201cIt&#8217;s gonna be fun. It&#8217;s gonna be great.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Joe Mazzulla on the Celtics\u2019 tough schedule in the coming weeks:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#39;m actually really excited about it. It\u2019s gonna be great.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3BvlhYleyG\">pic.twitter.com\/3BvlhYleyG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danield1214\/status\/1873544190182969613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Although that answer might seem surprising given Boston&#8217;s troubles this December, it&#8217;s on brand for Mazzulla. The New England native has never backed down from a challenge and he doesn&#8217;t expect his players to either.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does the Celtics&#8217; upcoming schedule look like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3187555\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3187555\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joe-Mazzulla-and-Jaylen-Brown.jpg?resize=150,84 150w\" alt=\"Celtics' Joe Mazzulla\u2019s surprising reaction to tough upcoming schedule\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3187555\">David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Tuesday afternoon, the 23-9 C&#8217;s will have an opportunity to bounce back at home against the Toronto Raptors, who are currently on a 10-game losing streak. Once that New Year&#8217;s Eve showdown ends, the Green Team will head west to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves on Thursday night. Next, the Celtics go down to Texas on Friday to face the 21-10 Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n<p>Things only get more difficult on Sunday afternoon, as the C&#8217;s take on the talented Oklahoma City Thunder (who are 13-2 at home). To close out the road trip, the Celtics travel west again to meet the Denver Nuggets late next Tuesday. The 2023 NBA champions haven&#8217;t lost to the Celtics in the regular season since November of 2022.<\/p>\n<p>While this Western Conference gauntlet is daunting and full of playoff teams, Mazzulla is confident in his squad. Celtics guard Derrick White didn&#8217;t discuss any of these games, but he did emphasize how much the players believe in one another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust trust the character in the locker room or the type of guys that are in that locker room,\u201d White responded when questioned about his confidence in his teammates. \u201cAnd those the type of guys I want to go to war with. So I&#8217;m confident in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boston didn&#8217;t lose three games in a row for the entirety of 2024, so faltering in four of its last six contests is uncommon. It&#8217;s especially unusual for White, who&#8217;s made two trips to the NBA Finals since joining the C&#8217;s in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s ups and downs through every season, so we&#8217;re in those downs and just got to figure it out together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics had the chance to avoid talks of a slump on Sunday because they nearly stormed back to defeat the Pacers. However, cutting Indiana&#8217;s lead down to five with 8:23 remaining in the fourth quarter was as good as it got for Boston down the stretch. Indy had an answer for every push and Boston struggled to hit the shots it needed, making just one of its final 12 attempts from deep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning in the NBA is hard,\u201d Celtics star Jayson Tatum admitted. \u201cWe gotta understand that. We know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tatum, White, and reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown combined for 70 points and 15 of the Celtics&#8217; 26 assists. It wasn&#8217;t enough though, and Tatum knows it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody is confident in our ability and what we can be as a team. We just gotta do it,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt hasn&#8217;t been the best stretch for us. But that&#8217;s okay. Nobody&#8217;s panicking or anything like that, but just gotta be better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Celtics are slumping into 2025, but head coach Joe Mazzulla is excited for the challenges that lie ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1262,13,139,138],"class_list":["post-21772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-derrick-white","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-joe-mazzulla"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Celtics&#039; Joe Mazzulla\u2019s surprising reaction to tough upcoming schedule - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21772\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Celtics&#039; 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