Celtics' Joe Mazzulla takes blame for big NBA problem

The NBA experienced a ratings decline of 19 percent on the NBA Cup semifinals this season. When asked about it, the Boston Celtics coach told reporter Noa Dalzell, "I don’t watch NBA games. So I'm just as much the problem as anyone else is. I don’t like watching the games."

Mazzulla didn't have an issue with the style of the NBA. He explained, "I'm around it all the time so I would rather watch something else."

Specifically, Mazzulla prefers watching the 2010 film "The Town," co-written, directed by and starring diehard Celtics fan Ben Affleck. In 2023, Mazzulla told former Celtic Brian Scalabrine that he watched the movie four times a week, crediting the film for giving him a "Boston mindset." Mazzulla regularly wears a shirt with a line from the film — "Whose car we taking?" — and his affection for the film became a "Jeopardy!" question answer.

With a running time of two hours and four minutes, marathoning "The Town" doesn't give Mazzulla a lot of spare time to watch regular NBA games. As for the people who blame the NBA's record-setting three-point frequency this season, led by Boston attempting 51.1 threes per game, Mazzulla doesn't agree.

After all, more threes means more scoring. Mazzulla doesn't think you'd hear that criticism for other sports."

"In the NFL, people aren’t like, 'I want to see less scoring.' They’re not going to make the end zones smaller," Mazzulla told reporters Wednesday. "They’re not going to make the field smaller. Scoring is up across other spots. I guess my question would be why in basketball would scoring being up be an issue as opposed to other sports?"

It's like asking if moviegoers want to see fewer armed robberies in action movies, or fewer elaborate plots to rob Fenway Park. Both Ben Affleck and Joe Mazzulla would agree about "The Town." They'd also agree that if shooting 50 three-pointers per game is what it takes for the Celtics to repeat as champions, they should keep bombing away. No matter what the ratings say.