Mazzulla Leads Celtics to Eastern Conference Finals
And just like that, former West Virginia guard Joe Mazzulla is another step closer to winning an NBA title. Sunday afternoon, Mazzulla led his Celtics to a 112-88 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We just handled the ebbs and flows of the series," Mazzulla said. "Never got too emotionally high or low. We were able to keep our emotions intact, which is important during the playoffs.”
Boston took two of the first three games in the series and had a chance to go up 3-1 with the ball in their possession at the end of the game, down one. Mazzulla opted to let his team play out the final 15 or so seconds instead of calling a timeout to draw something up, which led to a lot of criticism around the league, particularly in Boston.
But over the series' last two games, Mazzulla made several defensive adjustments to help the Celtics avoid being eliminated with their backs against the wall. The Sixers failed to reach 90 points in those two games and limited league MVP Joel Embiid to just 15 points in Game 7.
Now, Boston will have homecourt advantage for the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, who has been the true underdog story of the postseason. Miami entered the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and has upset No. 1 Milwaukee in five games and No. 5 New York in six.
Game one between Boston and Miami will take place Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. EST.
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