In two years at the helm, Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla has taken his team to the Eastern Conference finals and last year, to the NBA Finals, where the franchise captured its first championship since 2008.
Boston's success has been largely predicated on suffocating defense coupled with league-leading three-point shooting. This season, the Celtics rank second in the NBA to the Cleveland Cavaliers in offensive rating (119.9) and take a league-leading 19.0 three-pointers per game, which they make at a 37.2% clip.
So when asked by the media about NBA fans and their criticism of the league's propensity to shoot and incredible number of three-pointers, Mazzulla questioned the criticism, making a cross-sport reference in the process.
"It's an interesting perspective," Mazzulla began. "Because in the NFL, people aren't like, 'I want to see less scoring.' ...I guess my question would be, 'Why in basketball is scoring up being an issue as opposed to other sports?'"
Joe Mazzulla on fans that believe watching teams jack up threes is boring:
— Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) December 18, 2024
“In the NFL, people aren't like, ‘I want to see less scoring’ … Scoring is up across other sports. My question would be: Why in basketball is scoring being up an issue, as opposed to other sports? pic.twitter.com/cmeFNqvJbP
Mazzulla has a point. Other leagues like the NFL and even MLB have put rules in place making it harder on defenses and easier on offenses, but in the NBA, critics say that too much offense is weakening the product.
All these questions come in the wake of conversations surrounding declining television ratings for the NBA, which has been a hot topic of late.
But if you ask Mazzulla, more scoring is better for the NBA - especially for the Celtics.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla Questions NBA Fans' Criticism of Too Much Scoring.
