Regular season success is set to pay off for former WVU guard and Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla.
The NBA regular season concluded Sunday, and with that, Joe Mazzulla’s historic year leading the Boston Celtics will enter its most pivotal period. Exactly what this playoff journey holds, though, is unknown.
West Virginia’s former team captain and five-year guard led the Celtics to 64 wins in his first official season hired as head coach after serving as interim head coach last year. Mazzulla’s 121-43 total record in two seasons at the helm gives him the all-time best win percentage (73.8%) among NBA coaches with 100 or more games coached.
Mazzulla’s Celtics have the best record in the NBA by seven games over the Western Conference’s Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets. As such, they have earned the most favorable first-round matchup and home-court advantage for as long as their playoff run takes them.
Perhaps one disadvantage of Boston’s seeding, though, is that Mazzulla cannot be sure who his team may play come round one. The NBA’s Play-In Tournament makes that impossible for one seeds, as one of four teams could slot into the one-versus-eight matchup.
Luckily for Mazzulla, though, the Celtics have proven success against each potential eight seed, but not knowing its opponents for five of its six days of preparation may be tricky for Boston. Nevertheless, these are the teams Mazzulla will have to stay cognizant of this week and how the Celtics may fare against each.
Philadelphia 76ers
Seed and Overall Record: 7th, 47-35
Regular Season Record vs. Boston: 1-3
Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse has a couple of items Mazzulla simply lacks, those being an NBA Championship and Joel Embiid. In Mazzulla’s favor, though, is the victory in last year’s playoff series.
The former Raptors coach found his footing in the league similarly to Mazzulla, as after serving as assistant coach for five seasons, he was promoted to replace coach Dwane Casey shortly before the 2018-2019 season. With newly-acquired superstar Kawhi Leonard at the helm, Toronto defeated the Golden State Warriors 4-2 in the NBA Finals, making Nurse an NBA Champion.
Now, in his second year as Philadelphia’s coach, Nurse relies heavily on another superstar, reigning MVP center Joel Embiid. Mazzulla has seen Embiid’s talent firsthand, as in last year’s second-round playoff series, Embiid averaged 25.5 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks while recovering from an LCL sprain.
In that series, though, Boston came out on top, and history will show that the Celtics had a tougher time winning over a dominant James Harden performance than they did against an Embiid-heavy night.
Harden, who scored 40 points or more in two of Philadelphia’s wins, requested a trade from the 76ers early this season. Philadelphia complied, receiving rotational players Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, and Marcus Morris, who was flipped for Buddy Hield soon after.
The new-look 76ers finished seventh in the conference and will need to win the second of two play-in games to face off against Boston. The Celtics have a 3-1 record against Philadelphia this season, with the most recent matchup being a Celtics win on Feb. 27.
Miami Heat
Seed and Overall Record: 8th, 46-36
Regular Season Record vs. Boston: 0-3
Like the 76ers, Miami has recent playoff history against Mazzulla and the Celtics. In last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the eight-seeded Heat took on the two-seeded Celtics and were victorious. Also like Philadelphia, the Heat will need to lose the second of two play-in games to find itself playing Boston in round one.
Miami took an early 3-0 series lead in last year’s matchup before Boston fought back to tie the series and force a game seven. No Boston player scored 20 points or more in the final game of the series, resulting in a 103-84 Miami victory. The Heat went on to fall 4-1 in the NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets.
This regular season, Mazzulla’s roster seems to have gotten its revenge on the Heat, winning all three of the teams’ matchups, including a 143-110 win on Jan. 25. This differs from last year’s regular season series, which ended in a 2-2 split despite Miami having won fewer games in 2022-2023 than in this season.
Whether or not Miami will be able to force another upset in a one-eight matchup is unknown, and Mazzulla will certainly be aware of that possibility, but, with what they’ve seen of Miami this year, the Celtics would like their odds in this revenge series.
Chicago Bulls
Seed and Overall Record: 9th, 39-43
Regular Season Record vs. Boston: 0-3
Chicago, in a lot of ways, is the definition of a play-in team. The Bulls are not quite a winning team, and, against teams who are, they are 17-33. Against Boston specifically, Chicago has lost all three matchups.
The Bulls, with coach Billy Donovan and all-star forward Demar Derozan at the helm, have good moments but ultimately lack the consistent, or even streaky, production to easily win a series over Boston. Chicago has the third lowest pacing among all NBA offenses and ranks in the bottom half of the league in offensive and defensive rating.
Chicago would have to win two play-in games, one against the Atlanta Hawks and one against the loser between Philadelphia and Miami, to face Boston in round one.
The Bulls enter the play-in after a hard-fought overtime loss to the New York Knicks, who feature another WVU guard, Miles McBride. Chicago and former-WVU guard Jevon Carter played 16 minutes in that game and was scoreless on eight field goal attempts, just one game after going for 20 against Washington.
Atlanta Hawks
Seed and Overall Record: 10th, 36-46
Regular Season Record vs. Boston: 2-2
The only contender for the eight seed without a losing regular season record to Boston is the 10-seeded Atlanta Hawks. Both of Atlanta’s wins came in late March without star point guard Trae Young and were won by a margin of two points or less.
Despite its four-game hot streak between March 23 and March 28, the Hawks have the least wins by far of any team in the postseason. They also enter the play-in tournament on a six-game losing streak, including three losses since Young’s return from injury.
In its wins against Boston, Atlanta shot better than the Celtics from the field, but outside of that, the similarities between the two games are few. In the March 25 victory, Atlanta shot a modest 36 three-pointers but were efficient, making 18 of them. This almost single-handedly won Atlanta the game, as Boston shot 29% from long-range.
In the March 28 victory, Atlanta played very differently. The Hawks shot 104 field goal attempts total, including 44 three-pointers, of which Atlanta made just 15. To combat Boston’s starting lineup filled entirely with double-digit scorers, Atlanta relied on Dejounte Murray, who went for 44 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in the game on 18-for-44 shooting from the field and six-for-19 shooting from three.
Atlanta’s two losses against Boston, which featured Trae Young, saw different play styles as well, with Young dominating the ball in one game and going for 33 points and the Hawks relying on rebounding in the other. With that being said, if Atlanta can make it out of the play-in, Mazzulla will have to be ready for a variety of techniques coming from the Hawks unless Billy Donovan can settle on a consistent play style.
