When the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament was held last season there was confusion about the format as well as uncertainty about how much teams would actually care about the event.
Outwardly, the Celtics mostly shrugged and said they were focused on winning the bigger championship, a goal they eventually accomplished. But in their tournament group-play finale against the Bulls last November, they also made it clear they wanted to win the thing.
They needed to beat Chicago by at least 23 points in order to clinch a tiebreaker and advance to the quarterfinals. So when they were up by 30 points in the fourth quarter they continued to intentionally foul Bulls big man Andre Drummonda poor free-throw shooter.
The Celtics won, 124-97, and did enough to advance to the quarterfinals, where they were ousted by the Pacers. But now they are back to take another shot in the slightly revamped event, which is now the NBA Cup. Boston opened group play Tuesday with a 117-116 loss to the Hawks.
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Celtics coach Joe hammer said he welcomes the chance to try to win something, but he would prefer to see the format mimic European soccer, where in-season tournaments tend to be standalone events rather than part of the regular-season schedule.
“They don’t count toward your domestic league,” Mazzulla said. “It’s its own league entirely. That, to me, is my only negative toward it. I like it. I think having something like it in the middle of the season is good, especially in a long year. Just, that’s the difference between what you do here and what you do around the world. But it’s an opportunity for us to win something, an opportunity for us to go after something. So we’re going to go after it from that perspective.”
Along with the Hawks, the Celtics’ Group C includes the Cavaliers, Bulls, and Wizards. The winner of each of the six groups advances to the quarterfinals, along with two wild-card entries. So is Mazzulla looking forward to these matchups more than the others?
“No, they’re all the same,” he said. “We’ve got 82 of them, got to play them all. I’ve got the same amount of excitement for all of them.”
Celtics raffling off a ring
It turns out you don’t actually have to be an NBA champion to receive a title ring. The Celtics are holding a raffle for a scaled-down version of their championship ring, with the Shamrock Foundation using the proceeds to benefit communities in need. Tickets can be purchased on the team’s website. The raffle ends next Tuesday.
Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Al Horford (toe) were cleared to play Tuesday after being listed as questionable. Jaden Springer sat out due to left knee pain. The Hawks were without star guard Trae Young (Achilles’).
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
