JJ Redick picked up arguably his biggest win in his early coaching career as the Los Angeles Laker blew out the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
Redick praised the Lakers for their execution of the defensive gameplan and for good reason as they managed to hold the Celtics to only 96 points.
Holding a team like Boston to under 100 points is a massive accomplishment and one that L.A. should be able to build on. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is widely regarded as a strong offensive mind, so slowing down his team is no easy task.
Redick has previously talked about his relationship with Mazzulla and ahead of his first matchup against him as a head coach, he called the Celtics’ lead man a good friend of his.
“He’s a really, I would describe him as a really good friend,” Redick said before the game. “I’ve gotten to know him I guess for about two-and-a-half years now and he said something about how he wasn’t gonna talk to Charles (Lee) when they played the Hornets because he doesn’t talk to opposing coaches. He was nice enough to reach out in the last two weeks with everything going on here and we spoke.
“You kind of look at it every game, who are we playing and who the other coach is and kind of what they try to do and where they try to exploit things. They’re really good at figuring out where the weak link is and just doing that over and over and over again. We’re gonna have to be prepared not only to guard the first action and then to guard the iso. It’s gonna come in a number of ways and we have to be good with that.”
Prior to taking the Lakers head coaching job, Redick considered joining Mazzulla’s staff and explained how those conversations started when the latter got the job in Boston.
“I met him at Old Sandwich, which is a gold club. Just happened to be in Boston for a pre-planned trip for a buddy’s birthday party… Joe got the job on Friday and we played golf Sunday morning. We talked about (me) potentially joining the Celtics staff and it was something that was in the early stages of really knowing I wanted to coach and not sure what the timing would look like,” Redick revealed.
“We stayed in touch and there was another sort of conversation around joining the staff later. The last like two years, podcast included, calling games and getting to see him, particularly last year, we talked quite a bit with texts and after games and whatnot. When I was going through this process, he along with a few other coaches in the NBA were really helpful. Not just in preparing for an interview but just really helping me understand what this was and what it required.”
It sounds like Redick and Mazzulla have established a strong relationship the past couple of years, though the Lakers are fortunate their head coach chose to come to Los Angeles instead of heading to Boston.
Celtics’ Joe Mazsulla has utmost respect for Lakers’ JJ Redick
Mazzulla is an analytically-driven head coach who fits the modern NBA, so it’s no surprise that he holds a similar thinker like Redick in high regard.
“I have the utmost respect for him,” Mazzulla said. “He was sitting across from this table and decided to enter the arena. I wish more people would do that. So the fact that he did that and wanted to be in the arena just shows how competitive he is. I just think he’s really smart. He has great self awareness of what he’s great at, what he wants to work on. He’s willing to attack those things. We’ve had a good relationship. I’ve learned a lot from him as a coach and really as a person and as a player. Some of the stuff that he’s done as a player, you kind of replicate with some of the guys that we have. He’s a good example there.”
Mazzulla also acknowledged he wasn’t sure how close Redick got to joining him on the Celtics, but praised his basketball IQ.
“I don’t know how close he was, you’ll have to ask him. But we had a couple talks about it and definitely was interested. But I don’t know where he was in that process. But we learn from each other. He’s a very analytical mind and he can see the game and think on his feet. He’s definitely someone that you can learn from.”
Redick and Mazzulla are two coaches cut from the same cloth and it’ll be exciting to see them face off head to head in future matchups.
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