Joe Mazzulla marveled at Jazz coach’s ‘beautiful answer’ about what makes Celtics defense dominant
"It starts with the offense playing well," Will Hardy said. "It puts a lot of pressure on you."
As a former Celtics assistant, Jazz coach Will Hardy has plenty of familiarity with Boston’s defense.
On Friday night, he experienced just how tough the Celtics’ defense can be when the team is locked in. The Jazz shot 36 percent from the field in Boston’s 126-97 victory over Utah.
Every single Celtics starter recorded a block, including Jrue Holiday who had two. The Celtics swiped nine steals and forced 18 turnovers. Jayson Tatum set the tone from the beginning with a chase down block before either team had scored a basket.
Hardy spoke about Boston’s defensive prowess before the game. He said it’s the Celtics’ scoring ability that takes their defensive capabilities to another level.
“It starts with the offense playing well,” Hardy said. “It puts a lot of pressure on you. They can play with a lot of variety on the defensive end because of the matchups and then their individual defense is probably as good as anybody in the league top to bottom.”
Asked about Hardy’s answer after the game, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla agreed enthusiastically.
“That’s a beautiful answer. That’s such a beautiful answer,” Mazzulla said. “So many people look at the game and they’re like ‘this is what happpened’ in transition, or like when you give up something at the rim, there’s like three reasons why it got to that point.
“It could be the wrong matchup, it could be the wrong body position,” Mazzulla continued. “It could be anything. It’s like you’ve got to take it two or three steps back for each. The game is just connected there. Your defense starts with your offense because if you take great shots, and your well spaced, and you crash, and you get guys stuck out of the corner, it’s 5-on-5 … and you can get matched.”
Mazzulla said the team has been fortunate to be able to build on the defensive principles installed under the previous two head coaches.
“I think the team played and had a system when Brad [Stevens] was here and it was a rules based system where there was an answer for everything,” Mazzulla said. “You guard everything the exact same way. Very fortunate to see that system. And then when Will [Hardy] and Ime [Udoka] were here it was a little more switching.”
“But, we got really good at switching because we had the defensive principles that the team had when they were under Brad,” Mazzulla added. “We were able to kind of do some different things that if you don’t have principles and technique you’re not able to pull off. I think because of that foundation we were able to recreate with our switching. Fortunate to have both of those systems to do some stuff differently and I still think we can grow and get better.”
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