The Broken Fingers and Busted Eyes of the Boston Celtics’…Coaches

Taking over a title contender on short notice in September, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla made sure to keep one thing intact: the coaching staff’s brawling pickup games

Illustration by Guy Parsons

Boston’s 126-102 win over the Houston Rockets, on Dec. 27, was a laugher, with the Celtics’ All-Star duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum racking up 39 and 38 points, respectively. The more intense competition had come hours earlier, on the same parquet floor at TD Garden.

There, the Celtics’ coaching staff conducted a vicious, valorizing ritual. They played pickup basketball—or, rather, something like it.

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