The Boston Celtics went into Game 3 of their playoff series against the New York Knicks down 2-0. Joe Mazzulla and co. knew that it was a must-win, and luckily for Boston, they pulled it off, getting the blowout victory in New York.
After the game, Mazzulla had a rather unique message about Boston’s mindset going in while talking with reporters during his postgame press conference.
Joe Mazzulla Said Celtics Tapped Into Their ’Darkness
“This is the fun part. You don’t get into the journey for it to be easy. It’s been dark, but in a good way. You just gotta tap into your darkness,” Mazzulla said in an interesting admission. “…That’s it. You just gotta do it.”
This is a rather unique message from the Celtics’ head coach, but he already has a proven track record since taking over in 2022, so clearly, what he says resonates with his team and leads to results.
The Celtics are the reigning NBA champions, but they know well that there are always obstacles to getting to the top. Amazingly, they have already lost three games during their current playoff run, which was as many as they had lost during their title run last year.
However, Boston has had plenty of playoff obstacles with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown over the years, so they know how to get out of situations like these. Blowing out the Knicks in Game 3 is a good start towards coming back in this series. The question is whether they can build on this going forward.
The Celtics are likely frustrated enough that they are down 2-1. Making that frustration worse is that they could very easily have been up 3-0 had their miscues not come back to bite them in Games 1 and 2 at home. Choking away both games when they were up 20 proved to be their downfall, which they avoided throughout Game 3.
The Celtics are also trying to prove that their title run last season was not a fluke. Obviously, things did not start as well as they likely would have hoped in this series, but they proved in their Game 3 blowout victory that it’s far from over in their series against the Knicks.
READ: Joe Mazzulla Doesn’t Mince Words While Addressing Celtics’ Shocking Game 2 Loss vs. Knicks
The Celtics may know the challenges that lie ahead for them, but they’ve also learned not to take the Knicks lightly. Boston has given their division rival some good punches, but they’ve punched back in two of their three games.
