How Joe Mazzulla sent stern message to Celtics standouts in rout of Wizards

Blowout win Career night Doesn t matter to Joe Mazzulla As the Celtics were salting away a - waxing of the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night that featured standout performances from Josh Minott and Neemias Queta Mazzulla took both players to task for blowing defensive assignments For Queta it was failing to hustle out to contest an Alex Sarr -pointer with remaining and Boston up - For Minott it was lackadaisical effort on a Malaki Branham layup with to play in a -point match Both plays triggered the same response a Celtics timeout and an earful from the head coach His message was clear You can t let up Queta stated You had three great quarters The club is relying on me to keep playing that hard and not having those mental breakdowns Just trying to get the best out of me Minott described his encounter as Mazzulla very energetically telling me what I did wrong He just requested to push me Minott reported That s it I was messing up defensively That s really it Related Articles Jaylen Brown scorches Wizards as Celtics snap losing streak NBA admits refs blew crucial call in Celtics loss to Jazz We keep missing them How Derrick White Payton Pritchard explain Celtics -point struggles Jaylen Brown rips bureaucrats for unacceptable no-call in Celtics loss to Jazz Jaylen Brown-led rally falls short as poor-shooting Celtics fall to Jazz Both players revealed they welcome that kind of hard coaching from Boston s notoriously intense bench boss who knows his organization s margin for error is slimmer after it lost Kristaps Porzingis Jrue Holiday Al Horford Luke Kornet and the injured Jayson Tatum this offseason We never let up bro Minott reported It ain t no -point let-up Hell nah He was coaching me for the future We understand that Maybe the encounter is necessarily I would consider won by then but we re working for the future man There s never a let-up Now we re using that time as a lesson for the future and that s what he was expressing to me Before their late-game lessons Queta and Minott both posted big numbers against the lowly Wizards who took a -point first-quarter lead but caved after halftime Queta tallied points rebounds five assists one block and one steal in his fourth career double-double and he didn t miss from the field going a perfect -for- The -footer became Boston s starting center by default this summer he was the next man up behind Porzingis Horford and Kornet and the club s only frontcourt additions were veteran-minimum players but he s exceeded expectations thus far Despite the - Celtics inconsistency this season Queta s net rating is fourth-best among all NBA players who are averaging at least minutes per contest We will continue to hold Queta to a high standard because he has a lot of promising to be great Payton Pritchard revealed We need him We need his presence down low his rebounding his shot-blocking and obviously he shows flashes of doing things offensively that could be really great for us He s a young sportsman still and he s still growing so we re going to hold him to a high standard Minott in his sixth event as the Celtics starting power forward set a career high with points on -of- shooting He skied for dunks four of them including a pair of emphatic alley-oops that bookended halftime and drilled three -pointers on six attempts to go along with his five rebounds and three steals Boston also played him as a small-ball five for stretches preferring that look for the majority of its non-Queta minutes after the first quarter Defense rebounding and spacing are Minott s stated priorities but he s shown glimmers of offensive upside that only occasionally surfaced during his three seasons as a Minnesota Timberwolves reserve The Celtics are - since Mazzulla moved the -foot- sparkplug into the top unit He s huge for us declared Jaylen Brown who scored points in the win and assisted on two of Minott s slams His vigor his length his athleticism is big for us Any time when he brings it like that we re a better band Just encouraging him to be consistent every night and bring that same resource because he s huge for us Minott revealed he appreciates the crew s trust in him but he knows he could easily be sent back to the bench if he s not performing to Mazzulla s standard Those guys want to be coached Mazzulla noted of Queta and Minott who are starting alongside championship mainstays Derrick White Brown and Pritchard They want to be held accountable They ve done specific really good things for us and I think in order to get to a place that we know we can get to we ve just got to fight for execution all the time So they understand that they hold themselves to a high standard and they did a great job of that and we ve just got to keep that up