BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla pulled into the same parking spot at Auerbach on Tuesday. He ran the same practice Ime Udoka did. The terminology stayed the same, with the offensive and defensive principles unchanged from the ones learned by this group over a winding 2021-22 season.
For a Celtics organization going through its most turbulent week in recent memory, basketball became the easy part this week. Mazzulla wasn’t sure what temperament to expect from a confused and shocked roster. He wouldn’t force players to do anything they weren’t ready for. The group, instead, greeted him with eagerness to begin, rallying around him for day one of his new job as interim head coach.