JJ Redick earned the biggest win of his coaching career as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
Redick praised the Lakers for executing their defensive game plan and with good reason as they were able to hold the Celtics to just 96 points.
Holding a team like Boston to under 100 points is a tremendous accomplishment and one that Los Angeles should be able to build on. Celtics coach Joe Mazzola is widely viewed as having a strong offensive mindset, so slowing down his team is no easy task.
Redick previously spoke about his relationship with Mazzola and before his first game against him as head coach, described the Celtics captain as a good friend of his.
“He’s a really good friend, I would describe him as a really good friend,” Redick said before the game. “I’ve known him for about two and a half years, and he said something about he wouldn’t talk to Charles (Lee) when they played the Hornets because he wouldn’t talk to them.” Opposing coaches. He was kind enough to reach out the last couple of weeks with everything going on here and we talked.
“You look at it every game, who are we playing and who is the other coach and kind of what they’re trying to do and where they’re trying to exploit things. They’re really good at finding out where the weak link is and doing it over and over again. We’re going to have to be prepared to not just guard the first action and then Guarding ISO will come in many ways and we have to be good at it.
Before taking over as head coach of the Lakers, Redick considered joining Mazzola’s staff and explained how those conversations began when the latter got the job in Boston.
“I met him at Old Sandwich, a gold club. I happened to be in Boston on a pre-planned trip to a friend’s birthday party…Joe got the job on Friday and we played golf on Sunday morning. We talked about possibly joining the Celtics and that was it. I’m in the early stages of really knowing I want to coach and I’m not sure what the timing will look like.
“We’ve kept in touch and there was another kind of conversation about joining the staff later. In the last couple of years, including podcasting, calling in to games and being able to see him, especially last year, we talked a little bit with texts and after games and so on. When I was going through this process, he and a few other coaches in the NBA were really helpful in not only preparing for the interview but just really helping me understand what this is and what it takes.
Redick and Mazzola seem to have built a strong relationship over the past two years, although the Lakers are fortunate that their head coach chose to come to Los Angeles instead of heading to Boston.
The Celtics’ Joe Mazzola has the utmost respect for the Lakers’ JJ Redick
Mazzola is an analytically oriented coach fit for the modern NBA, so it’s no surprise that a similar thinker like Redick is held in high regard.
“I have the utmost respect for him,” Mazzola said. “He was sitting on the other side of this table and decided to get into the arena. I wish more people would do that. So the fact that he did it and wanted to be in the arena shows how competitive he is. I just think he’s really smart. He has a great self-awareness of what he’s great at “And what he wants to work on. He is willing to attack those things. We have a good relationship. I learned a lot from him as a coach, as a person and as a player. You can repeat it with some of the players we have.”
Mazzola also admitted he wasn’t sure how close Redick was to joining him on the Celtics’ roster, but praised his basketball IQ.
“I don’t know how close he was, you’d have to ask him. But we had conversations about it and we were definitely interested. But I don’t know where he was in that process. But we learn from each other. He’s got a very analytical mind and can see the game and think with his feet. He’s definitely someone You can learn from him.”
Redick and Mazzola are coaches cut from the same cloth and it will be interesting to see them go head to head in future matches.
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