An often exasperated Joe Mazzulla spent much of his Sunday night pointing down the bench for subs each time his team failed to secure a defensive rebound against the star-less Cleveland Cavaliers.
During one sequence midway through the second quarter, Mazzulla called for three subs in less than 20 seconds as his team gave up three consecutive offensive rebounds before a 24-second violation mercifully ended the possession.
Anfernee Simons got caught out of position and Mazzulla pointed to Derrick White to replace him. Neemias Queta couldn’t corral the next misfire and Mazzulla called for Josh Minott to sub in. When rookie Hugo Gonzalez failed to secure the next rebound opportunity, Sam Hauser joined the growing cluster at the scorer’s table.
It felt like a bit the scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark Griswold brings a gift to his boss, Frank Shirley. An annoyed Shirley doesn’t have time for small talk and picks up his office phone and tells his secretary, “Get me somebody. Anybody. And get me someone while I’m waiting!”
Boston’s defensive rebound rate this preseason is 64.3 percent. That’s 7.4 percent below the team’s 71.7 defensive rebound rate last season, which ranked seventh in the NBA. The Celtics’ current 64.3 percent mark would have been 3.5 percent worse than last-place Philadelphia for the entirety of the 2024-25 season.
Mazzulla has had a short leash on his players all preseason for their miscues, particularly on the glass, and it was on full display on Sunday night. The Cavaliers attempted a staggering 102 field goal attempts, making just 36. That’s 66 misfires, with Boston securing just 39 offensive rebounds. (The Cavs had 21 offensive rebounds.)
Boston’s defensive rebound rate of 59.7 percent on Sunday was its worst of the preseason. The first two games were nothing to write home about, either (68.5 percent vs. Toronto; 66.1 percent vs. Memphis)
Mazzulla, already seemingly riled up after answering a postgame query about 3-pointers, bristled at multiple postgame questions surrounding the team’s rebounding woes. He repeatedly noted the team simply needed to, “Find five guys that will rebound.”
[embedded content]
The Celtics produced a 31-point preseason victory on Sunday night, and you would have through they lost by 31 based on Mazzulla’s postgame tone. But this team has always emphasized process over results.
After the offseason departures of Kristaps Porzingis, Luke Kornet, and Al Horford, rebounding was bound to be in the spotlight to start the new campaign. The Celtics have received positive output from some of their new faces, including the trio of Chris Boucher, Luka Garza, and Josh Minott. But how the big-man rotation will shake out remains unclear just nine days before the start of the season.
Neemias Queta had an excellent summer playing for Portugal at EuroBasket but has had two rough showings to start the preseason. Newcomers Boucher and Garza have been sharper, but no combination of players has quite solved Boston’s rebounding issues.
Mazzulla has experimented this preseason starting double-big lineups with Boucher at one of the big man spots, then went single big with Boucher on Sunday night. It was 6-foot-4 Derrick White who led the Celtics with seven rebounds against the Cavaliers.
Mazzulla has set a tone of accountability with his quick hooks in these games. The Celtics seem hell-bent on making up for some of Boston’s talent drain by playing harder and smarter. Mazzulla, with his penchant for the margins, will not allow his team to beat itself by not putting in the effort necessary to finish defensive possessions.
Maybe that will force the team to play bigger to start the season, potentially pairing Boucher with another big up front. Minott and Garza have been two of the team’s better rebounders at various times this preseason and can help the team shore up that area. But the bottom line is that, when you lose two experienced 7-footers and one of the smartest 6-foot-9 guys in the league, then you just need to work harder on the glass.
We suspect Monday’s film session will focus a lot more on what went wrong than what went well. That’s too bad because the Celtics’ offense has been humming, Simons has shown he can get hot in a hurry, and Boston has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about its ability to remain competitive during the 2025-26 season.
But Mazzulla knows that the margin for error is slimmer while waiting for Jayson Tatum to get back to full health, and that the Celtics can’t gift their opponent extra possessions.
On Sunday night, Mazzulla made his point. The Celtics have to show they listened with their effort on the glass moving forward.
