In-Season Tournament Drama: Joe Mazzulla Got Into It With Billy Donovan After Pulling A Diabolical Move To Hack-A-Drummond Up 32 To Help The Celtics Advance
With the new In Season Tournament tiebreakers involving point differential, it's been a hot topic in the league these last few days. Players seem to hate it, but the fact of the matter is as long as things are going to be decided by point differential, it's important. Every point truly matters.
With tonight being the final night to determine who gets to move on, it was only a matter of time before point differential came into play. Everyone around the league was going to be scoreboard watching all night, and I'm not even going to try and explain all the scenarios because for starters my moron brain simply can't put it all together. I'm just going to wait for the NBA to tell me who gets to go.
What we did get was our first look at what's going to happen in these games now that the scores matter just a little bit more. With the Celtics up by 30+ (needing to win by +23), Joe Mazzulla did something I don't think anyone has ever seen before.
Year 2 Joe baby! What an absolute psycho. People will hate on a move like this but guess what? This is just Joe once again being ahead of the curve. Andre Drummond is a career 47.7% FT shooter. In a game where you need to win by as many points as humanly possible, putting Drummond at the line is a big brain move. In a normal setting, something like this would be a gigantic dick move. The good is, these are not normal games. This is what the rules allow for, and last time I checked there's nothing wrong with following the rules. Sorry Joe figured out how to take advantage I guess. At least he went up to Donovan and basically told him to not hate the player but to hate the game. His hands were tied, no disrespect, just business.
In terms of the game, the strategy ultimately worked with the Celtics winning by more than 23, the Nets won their game and ultimately the Celts won their group and advanced.
Frankly, I have to admit Adam Silver may have something on his hands with this thing. It was thrilling as hell to hang onto every basket on either side. People may not want to admit it because we always have to hate something new, but that was fun as hell.
I'll also say, I hope Donovan and the Bulls don't cry about this. If you don't want to have a hack-a-Drummond, don't have him on the floor. If you don't want the Celts to hit their point differential goal, play defense.
What a diabolical move though. Joe Mazzulla, what a basketball mind.
