Boston's Mazulla bares learning from 2022 NBA Finals loss to Golden State

BOSTON – In 2022, then 33-year-old Joe Mazulla was only in his third season as NBA assistant coach when the Boston Celtics last reached the NBA Finals. 

It ended in a disappointing loss to the Golden State Warriors. 

Two years later, Mazulla has the golden shot to reverse the Celtics’ fortunes and become only the sixth rookie head coach to win an NBA title. 

“I had a good seat, great perspective in that,” Mazulla said when Philstar.com asked him about what their 2022 debacle during the 2024 NBA Finals Media Day Wednesday (Thursday Manila time). “I think the biggest thing you learn is what goes into winning in the NBA Finals is the same as the last series, series before that, regular season, preseason, practice, training camp. It's the details, the execution, the ability to take your mindset and your body to the next level.”

Mazulla may be the youngest coach to reach the NBA Finals at 35 since Celtics legend Bill Russell did the same in 1969 but he is full of wisdom, gleaning on the lessons from their previous Finals loss.

“The biggest thing we took as we were going through that series against the Warriors, the things we kept coming back to were the things we kept talking about the entire year — the margins, details, fundamentals, the way you go about executing at a high level,” Mazulla said. 

The Celtics appeared on track to raise Banner 18 in 2022, which would have broken the deadlock with rival Los Angeles Lakers. But they squandered a 2-1 series lead as the more experienced Warriors executed better late in the series.

It has only been two years, but a lot has changed since then.

“We got a different team,” said Jaylen Brown, who narrowly edged Jayson Tatum for the Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player award.  “We got a different coach, too, as well. We had Ime Udoka; now we have Joe Mazzulla. We had Marcus Smart, Rob Williams; we had Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis. Different team, different coach two years later make a pretty big difference.”

But Mazulla was there in 2022 so he is no longer a stranger to the pressure of the NBA Finals.

“Yeah, I mean, unless they change the light bulbs in the arenas, they won't be any brighter than they were in the