With a sparkling 16-3 playoff record, it didn’t seem like the Boston Celtics faced much resistance en route to winning the 2024 NBA title. However, according to one-man quote machine Joe Mazzulla, you must read between the lines. Because while the series ended up being very short, Mazzulla said one team did push the Celtics more than they anticipated.
It was the Indiana Pacers, who the Celtics swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, but not without a big fight.
In a new interview with Boston Sports Journal’s John Karalis, Mazzulla claims that the Pacers made the Celtics sweat more than any other squad they faced in the postseason. In fact, he went as far as to say that the Celtics were lucky this series didn’t go seven against upstart Indiana.
More from Boston Sports Journal:
“That Indiana series was by far the toughest series, and we swept them, but it should have went seven,” he said [Mazzulla]. “You have to have an understanding that we have to fight for the things that we can control, but there’s so much that goes on that you can’t control. We’re trying to foul up three and give (Aaron) Nesmith a wide-open corner 3. If he makes that and we go in the overtime on the road, it’s a completely different game.”
Mazzulla makes a great point. While I find it hard to believe the Pacers would’ve ever won that series with the Celtics — especially after Tyrese Haliburton missed most of it with a hamstring injury — they probably deserved a better outcome than an outright sweep. They wouldn’t have been blanked if not for a few unlucky bounces here and there. But that’s just how sports and basketball shake out sometimes.
For what it’s worth, Mazzulla claiming a team the Celtics swept gave them their toughest challenge has recent precedent for being a harbinger of what might come for a defending NBA champion.
After the Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA title, some Nuggets players, like key reserve guard Bruce Brown, said Anthony Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves pushed Denver the most in its championship run even though it won in a five-game first-round series. When the Nuggets and Timberwolves met up a year later in the second round, we saw many of the similar fits Minnesota gave Denver in 2023, which helped Edwards and Co. upend their rival in a climactic Game 7 on the road.
None of this is to say that the Pacers are necessarily the Celtics’ biggest challenger on paper. Far from it, in fact.
But the NBA is a lot more about matchups than some people like to think. The Celtics’ five-out offense, where everyone can shoot and a defense loaded with elite perimeter talent, is equipped to handle almost every opponent well. But the Pacers don’t really play into that. They almost always push the tempo and control the game on their terms, even in a way where the Celtics are uncomfortable — as we saw in these two teams’ first Conference Finals battle.
Perhaps most importantly, like the Timberwolves, this was only the young Pacers’ first experience with the playoffs. A safe assumption is that they will come back more prepared for the postseason pressure and gauntlet moving forward. That can only help them in another potential battle with Boston.
If the Celtics and Pacers match up in the playoffs again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Indiana takes Boston to its absolute limit and then some. And if you don’t believe me, you should definitely listen to Mazzulla.
