Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla likes NBA Cup for lack of ‘unwritten rules’

Once again, Joe Mazzulla had the opportunity to run up the score on the Bulls in the Emirates NBA Cup. The Celtics coach took advantage of it.

After Bulls guard Coby White missed a pull-up 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left, Mazzulla rushed onto the court to call timeout even though the Celtics were up by six points at the time. The timeout allowed Boston to move the ball up the court, with Mazzulla drawing up a play for Sam Hauser to get a 3-pointer off before the buzzer.

Hauser executed the play, catching Jayson Tatum’s inbound pass and firing a 3-pointer that went in at the buzzer to give the Celtics a 138-129 victory. In the vast majority of other games, Hauser’s 3-pointer would’ve been viewed as unnecessary. But as the Celtics need to advance to the knockout stage on point differential, Mazzulla relished the opportunity to score more points.

“I like it because this tournament and the point differential kind of eliminates the unwritten rules that you’re supposed to follow or not follow,” Mazzulla told reporters of the NBA Cup rules. “Where in a normal situation, you wouldn’t do that. But in this one, you get to draw up a play and try to get better in that situation. So guys did a good job executing and we tried to extend the point differential as much as we could.”

Hauser’s 3-pointer could possibly be the difference between the Celtics advancing and being eliminated from the NBA Cup ahead of the knockout stage. The Hawks won Group C with the Celtics’ win on Friday, meaning Boston must advance to the knockout stage via the wild-card spot.

The wild-card spot will be determined by point differential. Following Friday’s games, the Celtics’ plus-23 point differential is the second-best among the second-place teams in the three groups in the Eastern Conference. Boston is done with group play, meaning it will need Orlando to beat New York and Milwaukee to beat Detroit by at least six points or Detroit to beat Milwaukee by at least seven points on Tuesday to advance.

Last season, the Celtics advanced to the knockout stage of the NBA Cup due to point differential. In their group play finale, Mazzulla practically pulled out all the stops to improve Boston’s point differential when it took on Chicago. It intentionally fouled Andre Drummond, a notoriously poor free-throw shooter, in order to improve its point differential.

The tactics worked for the Celtics last year, but Bulls coach Billy Donovan didn’t seem too happy with Mazzulla at the time. A year later, Donovan explained why he reacted to Mazzulla’s tactics the way he did at the time while also understanding where the Celtics coach was coming from.

“Andre was being put into a bad situation,” Donovan told reporters ahead of Friday’s game. “That’s all. I understood [what] Joe was saying and maybe after he had some time to think about it (he understood my point).”

Donovan emphasized that he has no animosity toward Mazzulla, either.

“The conversation was great with Joe and I have a lot of respect for Joe and like Joe,” Donovan said. “I wouldn’t say we’re close. But I do have a great deal of respect for him. I appreciated the conversation we had after the game was over with.

“With all that point differential stuff, I think it was something new that was for everybody. At that point and time, they were clearly tracking the point differential. I understood that.”

While running up the score might be viewed as unsportsmanlike, Mazzulla believes that his players don’t mind getting more opportunities to score points.

“It’s different,” Mazzulla said. “I think they enjoy it. It adds a little life to the game in the regular season. I know Sam likes it anytime he can get a shot up.”