Celtics HC Joe Mazzulla Breaks Silence on Controversial Jayson Tatum Decision Vs. Milwaukee Bucks

There’s no two ways about it. The Boston Celtics were utterly embarrassed by the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night in what was supposed to be a battle between two of the best teams in the NBA right now.

Simply put, the Celtics did not look the part as they suffered a humiliating 135-102 blowout loss at the hands of a struggling Milwaukee side that came into the game with a 1-4 record in January.

Celtics Coach Explains Benching Jayson Tatum, Starters Vs. Milwaukee Bucks

It’s not uncommon for coaches to pull out their stars from the game when it becomes out of hand. However, things were a bit different for Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla on Thursday. This was after the young shot-caller decided to yank Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the rest of his starters after halftime.

To be fair, Boston was already down by 37 points at the break. At that point, Mazzulla decided that the game was already beyond them and that it would be better to wave the white flag instead of attempting to mount an unlikely comeback.

“It’s tough,” Mazzulla said after the game, via Souichi Terada of Mass Live. “They want to play; they prepared. Again, it was my decision. It wasn’t theirs. At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to do what’s best for them and the team. If I said, ‘Hey, you want to go out there?’ They’re going to do it. It was me. I told them and I felt like it was my responsibility to do it.”

It is worth noting that the Celtics were also playing on the second night of a back-to-back set. They took down the Minnesota Timberwolves in Boston on Wednesday night in a grueling overtime battle. Surely, this factored in on Mazzulla’s decision to bench Tatum and Co. in the second half.

“Everything’s about the players,” Mazzulla said. “And so as you continue to listen to life from the player’s perspective and you look at the intentions and the character of your team, and a year of experience for myself. So I trust our character; I trust our team. You have to look at this and say, ‘OK, is this a one-off? Is this a trend? Is this something you have to be concerned about?’ When you look at stuff like that, the answer is no, no.”

The Celtics now get a day off before returning to action on Saturday against the Houston Rockets at the TD Garden.

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