{"id":132260,"date":"2025-04-01T15:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132260"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:53:17","slug":"joe-mazzulla-reveals-hidden-gem-xavier-tillman-impact-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/01\/joe-mazzulla-reveals-hidden-gem-xavier-tillman-impact-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Mazzulla Reveals Hidden Gem That Can ‘Impact Winning’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the reigning champions, the Boston Celtics<\/a> are arguably still the team to beat in the NBA. They have a lot of talent, and the team plays well with each other. Most notably, the Celtics’ duo of Jayson Tatum<\/a> and Jaylen Brown<\/a> led them to a title last year, and they should only continue to get better from here on out. However, there are other players on the team who can help contribute to their winning style of basketball, and head coach Joe Mazzulla recently named Xavier Tillman<\/a> as one of those players.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Celtics acquired Tillman from the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>. In his 20 games in Boston last year, Tillman played a solid backup role and came up big in their Game 3 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. However, he has only played in 30 games for Boston this year, averaging 7.2 minutes. Despite this, Mazzulla started Tillman in the team’s most recent game against Memphis. Furthermore, Mazzulla said that Tillman “can still impact winning.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can still impact winning,\u201d Mazzulla said<\/a>. \u201cI just appreciate who he is as a person and I think you\u2019ve got to validate the roster at times. I know that he can still help us, and there may be an opportunity where he does. I was grateful that we were able to give him that opportunity to be able to do that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joe Mazzulla Reveals Hidden Gem That Can ‘Impact Winning’<\/h2>\n

Xavier Tillman Has ‘Zero Regrets’ About Re-Signing With Celtics<\/h3>\n

Last offseason, the Michigan native signed a two-year, $4.8 million contract to stay in Boston. And although his first full year with the Celtics has been uneventful, Tillman made it clear he does not regret the decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, bro, we\u2019re the reigning champs,\u201d Tillman said<\/a>, beaming. \u201cTo say that I\u2019m on the best team in the world is amazing. So, I definitely stand by the decision that I made, and I\u2019m making the most out of the opportunities that I have each and every day. I have zero regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Tillman is averaging 1.1 points and 1.4 rebounds. Furthermore, he is shooting 23.5% from the field and 15.6% from beyond the arc. While Tillman has the tools to be a solid backup big man in the NBA, his dropoff is a bit concerning and does not bode well for his Celtics future.<\/p>\n

The Last Word On the Celtics and Xavier Tillman<\/h3>\n

With just a couple of weeks left in the regular season, the Celtics are on a roll. They have won nine straight games and are only four games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> for the No. 1 seed. It is unlikely that they will jump Cleveland in the standings. However, it is still an encouraging sign for them to cut it this close.<\/p>\n

Regardless of where they finish in the standings, the Celtics are the team to beat in the East. They will have an opportunity to repeat as champions. If they do, they will be the first NBA team to do so since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the reigning champions, the Boston Celtics are arguably still the team to beat in the NBA. They have a lot of talent, and the team plays well with each other. Most notably, the Celtics’ duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led them to a title last year, and they should only continue to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":132261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,2,62],"tags":[1151],"class_list":["post-132260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-featured","category-nba","tag-xavier-tillman"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132266,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132260\/revisions\/132266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}