Coach of the Month

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Taylor Snow

After coaching his team to the best offensive month in NBA history, Joe Mazzulla rightfully earned Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in March, the league announced Tuesday.

The Celtics set the NBA record for highest offensive rating throughout a full month with a mark of 128.4 points scored per 100 possessions in 16 March matchups, per Statmuse. The previous record was 127.9 by these same Celtics in December, which happens to be the last time Mazzulla won Coach of the Month.

The second-year head coach has now earned the honor twice this season and three times overall, tying him with Brad Stevens for the second-most such recognitions in franchise history and placing him halfway to Doc Rivers’ team record of six.

Mazzulla also tied the mark for the second-most such recognitions within a coach’s first two seasons at the helm of a team, trailing only Tom Thibodeau’s tally of five after joining the Chicago Bulls.

The Celtics went an East-best 12-4 during March while leading the NBA in several categories on top of their record-setting offensive rating. They were the best scoring team (121.7 points per game) by nearly two full points, and they made nearly four more 3-pointers per game (18.0) than any other squad while posting the best 3-point percentage (41.8 percent) by more than a full percentage point.

Boston also posted the best net rating (15.8), finishing six full points ahead of second-place New York (9.8). There was a larger net-rating gap from first to second than there was from second to 11th (Minnesota –&nbsp;4.0).

The C’s had the best assist-to-turnover ratio (2.77), the best effective field-goal percentage (59.0 percent), allowed the fewest points off turnovers (12.1), and allowed the lowest opponent free-throw rate (0.157).

The Celtics carried an 11-game win streak into March and then had a separate nine-game win streak after that. Those represent the two longest win streaks in the East this season.

Although the players are the ones putting up those numbers, Mazzulla and his staff deserve just as much credit for implementing their schemes and game plans. This goes for the whole season, not just the month of March.

The C’s currently have a 59-16 record, giving them an 11.5-game lead in the East over the second-place Milwaukee Bucks and a 6.5-game lead over the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, who come to Boston Wednesday.

If they win Wednesday night's game, the Celtics would be guaranteed the top overall seed in the playoffs with six games remaining, and it would also give them their first 60-win season since 2008-09.

This brings up another point: Boston’s coach should be an early favorite to earn some more serious hardware at the end of the season in the form of Coach of the Year. He was a finalist for the award last season with a 57-25 record, and he unquestionably deserves to be back among the final three selectees this season with his team on pace to win well over 60 games.

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Mazzulla Earns 3rd Coach of the Month After Record-Setting March

BOSTON – The Boston Celtics did more than survive through their toughest month of the season; they thrived through it.

Boston posted a league-best 12-2 record in December, including a remarkable 8-1 mark against teams with a .500 record or better, to maintain its spot atop the league standings heading into 2024.

The starting five earned plenty of warranted praise for their connectedness during that period, but a lot of credit should also be directed toward Joe Mazzulla, whom the league deservedly recognized Thursday afternoon as the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month.

In his second season, Mazzulla has settled in and built a strong command over this group, which isn’t easy for a young coach of a team that is loaded with established stars. Brad Stevens highlighted Mazzulla’s leadership in that regard Thursday afternoon while assessing the team’s progress with the media.

Stevens observed, “I think Joe’s done a great job out of the gate of saying, ‘This is how we need to be. This is what we need to do for each other to be the best that we can be. These are the strengths of your teammates. How can we get those out of them and make it a focal point?’ People use the word sacrifice a lot. It’s the idea of serving a team – Like, being there for the good of the group – And I think he’s done a great job of that all the way through.”

In figuring out how to connect his players and help them get the most out of each other, Mazzulla has the offense rolling at a historic level. Boston’s 126.5 points per game in December represented its second-best offensive month in team history (minimum six games played), trailing only the 126.8 PPG it averaged in January of 1960.

The C’s made a league-high 16.6 3-pointers per game during that stretch at a clip of 39.2 percent.

Boston set the tone for the month with a 125-119 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 1. That was followed by a 122-112 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the quarterfinals of the In-Season Tournament, but that would wind up being its only regulation loss of the month.

The Celtics then swept a five-game homestand, starting with a win over the New York Knicks, followed by consecutive miniseries sweeps of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic, respectively.

Following the homestand, Boston went 3-1 on a four-game California road trip. After dropping the first game of the trip in overtime to the Golden State Warriors, the C’s beat the Kings, the Clippers, and finally the Lakers on Christmas Day. They scored a combined 189 points in their wins over the Kings (144-119) and Clippers (145-108), marking the first time in team history that they scored at least 144 points in back-to-back games.

The Celtics wrapped up the month with a pair of home wins against Detroit and Toronto, bringing its home record to a perfect 17-0, before capping off the New Year with a 134-101 win in San Antonio.

To post a 12-2 record in any month is impressive in itself, but to have done it against such a gauntlet of teams is telling of how connected and driven this Celtics group is under the guidance of their second-year head coach.

Mazzulla has now claimed two Coach of the Month Awards in less than a season and a half on the job. Only Doc Rivers (six) and Stevens (three) have more.

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Mazzulla Earns COTM, Stevens Speaks on Coach’s Impact

Boston Celtics

BOSTON, MA –&nbsp;Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in December, the league announced today. Mazzulla earns his second career monthly honor and is tied&nbsp;for the third most Coach of the Month awards in franchise history, behind Doc Rivers (6) and Brad Stevens (3).

The Celtics posted the best overall record in the league with a 12-2 mark while their .857 winning percentage ranks seventh in franchise history for the month of December&nbsp;and the highest since 2007-08 (.929). The C’s also owned the best winning percentage against .500 or better opponents with an 8-1 record (.889).

The Celtics’&nbsp;126.5 points per game ranked second in the NBA after the Bucks (131.5), and ranked fourth in NBA history for the highest December scoring average, behind the Atlanta Hawks in 2020-21 and Baltimore Bullets in 1965-66. Boston averaged the most three-pointers in the NBA with 16.6 makes per game behind the sixth-best three-point shooting percentage (39.2) and ranked third in effective field goal percentage (58.6).

The Celtics led the league in defensive rebounds (35.4) and also ranked second in blocks per game (7.1), rebounds (47.6), plus/minus (11.7), offensive rating (125.9), and net rating (11.2).&nbsp;The team held their opponents to 47.1 points in the paint, which stands as the fourth-lowest mark in the league.

The Celtics scored more than 125 points in four straight road games for the first time in franchise history during their California road trip from Dec. 19-25, including wins over the Kings (144-119), Clippers (145-108), and Lakers (126-115). Boston scored 144+ points in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history and became one of only three teams in NBA&nbsp;history to accomplish that&nbsp;feat on the road. Boston scored at least 920 total points over a seven-game span for the first time since 1962.

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Celtics Joe Mazzulla Named NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month  

For the second time in franchise history, the Boston Celtics have a back-to-back winner for Eastern Conference Coach of the Month.

The NBA announced Ime Udoka as its latest recipient Tuesday afternoon for games played in March and April, during which the Celtics compiled a league-best 15-4 record.

It marked Udoka’s second straight month winning the award, making him just the second coach in Celtics history, along with Doc Rivers in 2008-09 and 2009-10, to earn it multiple times in the same season. Of course, that also means that Udoka is the only first-year Celtics head coach to accomplish such a feat.

Rivers, like Udoka, won it twice in a row to close out the 2007-08 regular season before embarking on a championship run.

Udoka is the first Eastern Conference coach to earn the recognition in back-to-back months since Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer did so in December 2018 and January 2019. Budenholzer went on to win NBA Coach of the Year following that season.

When Udoka won in February, the team’s main accomplishments occurred on the defensive end. However, for March/April, their most notable achievements happened on the offensive end, as they posted the best offensive rating in the entire league during that span at 123.4.

Since March 1, the Celtics ranked second in the East in points per game (120.4), assists per game (28.2), and field-goal percentage (50.4 percent), while also logging the East’s third-best clip from 3-point range (39.6 percent). In terms of advanced shooting stats, the C’s ranked first in the league in both effective field goal percentage (59.2 percent) and true shooting percentage (62.4 percent).

As for their defense, the Celtics continued where they left off in February. Since the start of March, they posted the second-best defensive rating in the NBA at 109.4. Combining that with their offensive rating gave them a phenomenal net rating of 14.0. No other team in the NBA had better than an 8.1 net rating during that same span.

The numbers are even more remarkable when taking into consideration how the season started for the Celtics. Through the first half of the season, Boston had posted a sub-.500 record at 20-21. Udoka then guided the team to one of its greatest mid-season turnarounds in history, as it recorded a second-half record of 31-10.

Boston went all the way from 11th place on Jan. 16 to finish in second place with a 51-31 record. Udoka became just the third rookie Celtics head coach to win 50 games, joining Bill Russell and Chris Ford.

“He's been amazing,” third-year forward Grant Williams said of Udoka at the beginning of March. “He's challenged us. He's been a guy that holds us to a higher standard. He hasn't allowed us to slip or dip in anything whether it's defensive intensity – he’ll call a timeout and speak his spiel and let us know exactly what we're doing and let us have it, and we'll bounce back and respond. So it's tremendous that we've grown the relationships, I feel like, over the course of the year.

"With a new coach, you always have to adjust to knowing the system. It was a bumpy start, but I feel like we're getting into the flow of things and just trusting great leadership from him and the rest of the coaching staff.”

Finishing in the manner that he did, in his first season as a head coach, nonetheless, makes Udoka’s 2021-22 journey one of the most fascinating storylines in the NBA. It may also help him earn an even more substantial coaching honor in the near future, as he has made one of the strongest, if not the strongest, cases for Coach of the Year.

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Udoka COTY Case Made Stronger in Winning Back-to-Back COTMs

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BOSTON – The NBA announced Friday that Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens has been named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played during the months of October and November.

The fifth-year Celtics coach guided his squad to a league-best 19-4 record during the first month and a half of the 2017-18 season, despite dealing with a plethora of unexpected obstacles.

On Opening Night, the Celtics lost star wing Gordon Hayward to a season-ending leg injury, but the team barely skipped a beat under Stevens’ guidance. Boston lost its first two games of the season, but the team regrouped and went on to win 16 consecutive games for its longest winning streak since the 2008-09 season.

Over the course of the streak, the Celtics achieved seven fourth-quarter comebacks and overcame four deficits of 13 points or more. What made the stretch even more remarkable was the fact that the team had just come together as a new unit; the Celtics had only four returnees from last season’s team as they brought in 10 new players during the offseason.

On top of that, the C’s dealt with injuries to major rotational players, including Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris. Yet, they kept chugging along under the tutelage of their conductor.

“Brad, he’s a mastermind when it comes to coaching,” Morris said Nov. 10 after the Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets despite the absences of Hayward, Horford and Irving. “He puts guys in the right spots and strong areas to where they can succeed well at. He knows matchups and plugs guys in. He knows what they do best offensively and defensively.”

Defense was the key to Boston’s strong start, as it stifled opposing offenses with its collective length and athleticism. The C’s exited the month of November boasting the league’s best marks in both defensive rating (98.4) and opponent scoring (96.8 points per game).

Boston’s most impressive defensive effort came Nov. 16 when it held the Golden State Warriors’ league-leading offense to just 88 points at TD Garden. The C’s overcame a 17-point deficit that night to knock off the defending NBA champions, 92-88.

The Celtics have had a few standout players over the first month and a half, including Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and rookie Jayson Tatum. Though, in reality, every player on the 14-man roster has contributed to the team’s success. That’s because Stevens has found a way to slot each guy into a role in which they can succeed.

“The more you live within the system, the better we all look and the more fun we all have, as well,” said veteran center Aron Baynes. “And that’s a credit to Brad.”

The Celtics’ players aren’t the only ones who recognize Stevens’ abilities on the sidelines. Renowned San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich recently dished out great praise for the 41-year-old coach.

"He is a special person -- and that's on and off the court," Popovich said Oct. 30 before Stevens’ Celtics dealt his Spurs a 108-94 loss. "He's very intelligent. And intelligence is fine, but if it doesn't come along with incisiveness, judgment and an emotional maturity, it doesn't do you much good. And he has all of those things. And that's large. Not that many people have that. It shows in the way he handles people and the way he coaches. He's going to be a great one before it's all over with. And he's already a hell of a coach."

This marks the third career Coach of the Month honor for Stevens, who also received the award in April of 2015 and February of 2016.

Houston’s Mike D’Antoni was named Coach of the Month in the Western Conference.

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Brad Stevens Named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for Oct./Nov.

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BOSTON – The NBA announced Tuesday that Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens has been named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played during February.

The third-year Celtics coach guided his squad to an Eastern Conference-best 9-3 record during the month, including a perfect 6-0 mark at TD Garden. The C’s (36-25 overall) finished the month in sole possession of third place in the East behind Cleveland and Atlantic Division foe, Toronto.

Boston led the conference in points per game (110.8), free throw percentage (81.3 percent), and finished second in assists per game (26.8) to Atlanta (27.5).

The Celtics started off the month with four-straight wins, including a thrilling 104-103 win in Cleveland on Feb. 5. Avery Bradley stunned the first-place Cavaliers with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Boston won another nail-biter just ahead of the All-Star break on Feb. 10 when it defeated the Los Angeles Clippers, 139-136, in overtime at TD Garden. The C’s became the first Eastern Conference team to score at least 139 points against the Clippers in more than 36 years. It also marked one of four times during the month that Boston scored at least 120 points.

The Celtics came out of the break and experienced a challenging Western Conference trip, during which they went 1-2 with a win over Denver and losses to Utah and Minnesota.

Boston bounced back when it returned home and closed out the month with wins over Milwaukee, Miami (marking Stevens’ 100th win with the Celtics) and Utah. During their final game of the month against the Jazz, the C’s tallied 13 blocked shots, which was their highest single game total since Dec. 12, 2009.

The Western Conference Coach of the Month honor went to Portland coach Terry Stotts. He led the Trail Blazers to a 9-2 record during February, which included wins against Memphis, Golden State, Chicago and Indiana. Portland closed the month winners of eight of its last nine games, and currently sit tied for sixth place in the West standings with Dallas.

Stevens and Stotts will clash on Wednesday at TD Garden, when the Blazers will attempt to halt Boston’s 11-game home winning streak.