Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla recently was on the Locked On Celtics podcast, discussing the upcoming season. He says he is preparing the team to be a target. Every NBA champion has gone through it. Once you win a title, you have a target on your back. The Celtics will raise their banner on October 22, before taking on the Knicks. Earlier this summer, Jaylen Brown said he loves that the Celtics will have a target on their back.
Now Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla followed in. Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of the Locked on Celtics podcast, he said,
“People’s going to say the target’s on our back, but I hope it’s right on our forehead, in between our eyes. I hope I can see the red dot”.
Joe Mazzulla Speak on Celtics Title Defense
Boston will open training camp on September 25th. Then, they will play two preseason games on October 4th and October 6th against the Denver Nuggets in Abu Dhabi. Their American preseason begins on October 12. On October 22nd, the Celtics will begin their journey as defending champions, trying to do something nobody has done in the past six years. The last team to repeat as NBA champions was the 2018 Golden State Warriors.
Since the 2018 season, each year has had a different champion. The Raptors won it in 2019, followed by the Lakers in 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, the Warriors in 2022, the Denver Nuggets in 2023, and now the Celtics in 2024. But the Celtics have a reason to believe they have a shot at a repeat. Unlike previous champions, they have not lost a single player from their core group.
Not Skipping Steps
Speaking on the Locked On Celtics podcast, Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla also echoed the words of his star player, Jaylen Brown. Host John Karalis asked Joe about does he agree with Jaylen about the team not skipping steps.
Joe replied,
“It is not about the necessary term skipping steps. Because we can go out there every day and make sure we focus on the fundamentals. It comes down can you translate them under to hide duress moments individually and together and build that mindset”.
Joe also acknowledged that the team will have difficult moments throughout the season, but he hopes they can keep the focus on the target, which is repeating as NBA champions.
Bringing the Team Back
Celtics star Jayson Tatum recently said,
“We have the same team coming back.”
That is the team that won 64 games last season and had a historic net differential both in the regular season and the playoffs. During his run with the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla managed to lead the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in his first year, and an NBA title in his second year. In addition to keeping their core guys, the Celtics also Lonnie Walker IV as a free agent while drafting Baylor Scheierman Anton Watson. As for Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, he has been thinking about a repeat for a long time. Speaking on The Lowe Podcast in June, he said he has been thinking about how his team could repeat as champions since the horn went off in the final game of the 2024 NBA Finals.
