Johnston's Joe Mazzulla has Celtics right where they want to be

PHILADELPHIA — Long before the Celtics and the rest of the NBA had ever heard of Joe Mazzulla, Blake Griffin got a firsthand view of the kid from Johnston. It was 2007 and Griffin’s Oklahoma Sooners were taking on Mazzulla’s West Virginian Mountaineers.

“It was his sophomore year, my freshman year,” recalled six-time All-Star Griffin, moments before the Mazzulla-led Celtics took back home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a solid 114-102 win over newly minted MVP Joel Embiid and the host Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.  “He started. He was a hard-nosed defensive-minded player.  I remember him from the scouting report.”

Some things never change. Sixteen years later Mazzulla has become a hard-nosed defensive-minded coach, whose club has shaken off the frustration of dropping Game 1 by putting a shackle on James Harden & Co. to take a 2-1 series lead. After lighting up the men in green for 45 points in Monday’s series opener, Harden has scored just 28 points while shooting a combined 5-for-28.  Tyrese Maxey, who scored 26 in the opener, hasn’t been any better,  scoring 26 combined.

“We’re just trying to make him work as much as we can,” said Mazzulla of Harden, after his club held off a number of Sixer comeback attempts by continuously coming up with loose balls, often leading to clutch 3-pointers or layups to stem the tide. “Trying to keep him off the free-throw line. Guys are working to take away those details.”

The result has the Celtics two wins away from returning to the Eastern Conference finals, where they’d take on either the upstart Heat or Knicks. But Mazzulla’s been around long enough to not look that far ahead, saying he expects Game 4 here today to be “a war.”

Considering the circumstances that got him the job, being bumped up from assistant to head coach when Ime Udoka was relieved of his duties less than a month before the start of the season, he’s already accomplished more than many may have thought.

Perhaps even some of his players were thinking what everybody else was.  "How’s this going to go?” said guard Marcus Smart.

“He’s seen us at our worst and at our best. Seen what we do well and don’t do well.  So for us, it was how can we help him help us.  Joe’s been able to help us by allowing us to be more in charge as players and vice-versa.

“There are things we don’t know and things he doesn’t know.  But we’ve been able to sit down and talk honestly.”

Griffin, the 13-year veteran who’s played for four teams and a number of coaches, says Mazzulla commands the room like someone who’s been doing it for years.  “He’s very, very well prepared,” said Griffin, who’ll remind Mazzulla that Oklahoma beat WVU, 88-82, in double overtime in that 2007 game. “The thing I really like about Joe as I’ve gotten to know him is his willingness to make himself better all the time.

“I’ve been impressed with his voice being a first-year head coach.   You can tell he’s been around.  He’s prepared himself like he was going to be a head coach someday.”

The man he’s going against, Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers, says he dealt with the same kind of no-win pressure his first time behind a playoff bench.

“He’s taken over a team that went to the Finals last year and done a fantastic job,” said Rivers, whose 2001 Orlando Magic club lost in the first round.  “He’s going to be the guy — just like me — and just like all us coaches.

“We’re going to be the guy you look at whenever anything goes wrong. Joe’s never experienced that. But that’s just the way it is.”

Indeed, Mazzulla understands it comes with the territory; a territory never before blazed by a native Rhode Islander.   He was asked if he ever takes a moment to think about how far he’s come from the days he was starring at Bishop Hendricken and winning state titles before going on to play for a Bob Huggins’ West Virginia squad that would go to the 2010 Final Four.

“You try to practice gratitude and understanding," he replied.  “Why I’m here is because of a lot of people.  What they did and the sacrifices they made.

“I‘m also here because of what the Celtics have done. So just reflecting on it, you have a lot of great people around you who’ve given their support.”

On the verge of taking a 3-games-to-1 stranglehold on the series before it heads back to Boston for Game 5 on Tuesday, Mazzulla says the key has been just letting Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Smart and the rest do their thing.  “I trust our guys’ experience and mindset,” he explained, watching Tatum and Brown combine for 50 while the defense shut down the Sixers in the paint. Philadelphia actually shot better behind the 3-point line (16-for-37, 43.2%) than on 2s (15-for-41, 36.6%).  “I just love the people we work with.

“I’m fortunate to have one of the best locker rooms with their character and work ethic. It makes my job pretty easy.”

With Rhode Island’s own Joe Mazzulla at the helm of the Celtics, Joel Embiid, James Harden and the rest of the Sixers are learning to their dismay that to battle back and still win this series will be pretty hard.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: The Celtics defeat the 76ers, 114-102, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead over the 76ers in their Eastern Conference semifinal