Joe Mazzulla’s “Mazzulla Ball” philosophy is under fire after Celtics postseason disappointment

Joe Mazzulla

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After this season, the NBA media is taking a hard look at Mazzulla’s resume. On a Celtics on CLNS podcast, Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn and NBA writer A. Sherrod Blakely both agreed that Mazzulla is built for the regular season, but not so much the postseason.

"I think we're seeing in the playoffs, he is being out-coached, and something's gotta change,” Washburn said.

“"Joe is slowly but surely establishing the reputation of being a really good regular-season coach. When you look at the totality of his postseasons as a coach, you take away the championship year, and it's not looking good,” Blakely stated.

Mazulla’s coaching record

Jaylen Brown Joe Mazzulla

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Let’s break it down. Mazzulla took over as head coach starting in the 2022-23 season. He immediately led the Celtics to the two seed and the Eastern Conference Finals, where Boston almost became the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

The year after, the Celtics won the NBA Finals after dominating the regular and postseason. Then, they made the playoffs two more times, and had two crushing losses in the postseason.

Overall, Mazzulla is 238-90 in the regular season, and 36-21 in the postseason. He is a wildly successful coach for his age, and could be Boston’s coach for a very long time, similar to the San Antonio Spurs’ former coach Gregg Popovich.

Are the critics right?

Joe Mazzulla

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Honestly, the last two years leave a bad taste in the mouth, but no, the critics are not right. Mazzulla has led the Celtics to a top two seed and a playoff appearance in four straight years.

Boston’s losses can also all be attributed to one of their franchise stars not being healthy when it came down to it: Tatum sprained his ankle in 2023, tore his Achilles in 2025, and left leg tightness this postseason. On top of that, in an NBA that now values parity, it's very hard to win multiple championships in a short timeframe.

While the Celtics’ losses might look ugly due to poor shooting from deep, it’s also what drives their enormous amount of success under Mazzulla. Simply saying Mazzulla might have to go after two unlucky postseasons isn’t a fair evaluation.

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