Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown shared his favorite quote from coach Joe Mazzulla that sets the tone for the team’s defensive mindsets. The C’s have excelled on both ends of the ball since Mazzulla took over in the aftermath of the Ime Udoka scandal, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023 and contending for the NBA championship last season.
Brown, one of the team’s best players, explained how Mazzulla has instilled its defensive mentality in the squad during his appearance on the YouTube show “Hot Ones” on Thursday.
“Coach Mazzulla’s favorite quote is like, ‘There is no such thing as a foul, you either die or you don’t.’ He just has a bunch of crazy quotes on mentality.”
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“One of the things he’s coined is like, we call our offense the ‘Killer Whale Offense.’ How they attack seals, the killer whale, how they hunt seals and we studied how killer whales attacked as a unit and then we built our offense off of killer whales. Joe definitely has a bunch of crazy stuff, but it’s cemented to his madness and it works,” Brown said.
These quotes and mentality have made an impact on the Celtics, who finished last season with the best record in the league before cruising the playoffs and getting their 18th NBA championship against the Dallas Mavericks, led by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Jaylen Brown played a key role in that championship run, collecting silverware and proving doubters wrong in the process.
Revisiting Jaylen Brown’s impressive 2024 NBA playoff run
The Boston Celtics played 19 games in the 2024 NBA playoffs, only losing three of them; one against the Heat in the first round, one against the Cavaliers in the second round and one against the Mavericks in the Finals.
Jaylen Brown was on a tear during this run, averaging 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, taking home the Larry Bird trophy as the Eastern Conference finals MVP.
In the NBA Finals, his numbers dropped scoring-wise, but his rebounds and assists went up, posting 20.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 5.0 apg against the Mavericks, which earned him the Finals MVP award to close out a special season for the veteran swingman.
The Celtics are now the team to beat in the NBA and after keeping most of their core untouched, they look like serious candidates to win back-to-back titles led by Jaylen Brown and his partner in crime, Jayson Tatum.
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Edited by nagpaltusharn25
