Joe Mazzulla Shrugging Off Lakers Loss Undermined Celtics Vowing Response.

BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla benched three starters early in the third quarter, calling it part of accountability after the game, while Jayson Tatum addressed teammates in an animated fashion in the ensuing timeout. Kristaps Porzingis’ recalled his coach’s message in the wake of a shocking loss to the short-handed Lakers.

“It was really good, it was on point again,” Porzingis told CLNS Media post-game. “He was saying we cannot, because he felt and I also felt, when we were down a little bit, because we haven’t been down a lot this season, it’s not the end of the world … we’re gonna be down, we’re gonna have terrible games like we did tonight. We gotta stay with it. We’re down 10, we get two stops, we score two times, we’re down 4-5 .It’s a completely different game. We just have to stay like this … if the game’s not going our way completely … we’re gonna be in those situations like we were tonight again. It’s how we bounce back from that.”