“He said that?” Mazzulla said with a rich grin. “Man I wish I would have heard that. That’s fun. That’s awesome. Damn.”
About a half an hour before, Payton Pritchard closed out the listless Lakers with a dagger 3-pointer and then shouted in the direction of NBC analyst and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller. It was his sixth 3-pointer in what was one of his top performances in recent memory because of his handful of style-point shots.
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The Celtics’ 111-89 domination of the rival Lakers was perhaps a final punctuation for a doubting national audience that they are truly a legit contender. They dismantled the Golden State Warriors three nights before, but Stephen Curry did not play.
This time, the Lakers were fully healthy with LeBron James and Luka Doncic motivated by watching their previous franchise greats celebrate the 80-year-old Riley, now the president of the Miami Heat. His urging of his former franchise to whip its biggest rival was only supposed to provide even more motivation, but it didn’t because the Celtics wouldn’t allow it.
They suffocated the Lakers defensively for the final three quarters and relied upon the brilliance of Pritchard and the steadiness of Jaylen Brown for the runaway win. The Celtics were the ones who rose to the occasion, played above the level of their opponents, and pounded another worthy opponent with its balance.
While Mazzulla understands the circumstances, the star power, the theatre lights of Crypto, a venue that most of his players watched their all-time favorite players flourish, he doesn’t want his team to lose its swagger Tuesday at Mortgage Matchup Center facing a Phoenix team without Devin Booker. That’s the sign of a mature and accomplished team.
“We have to find a way to do it at Phoenix,” Mazzulla said. “If it’s a short-term thing, if it’s an extrinsic thing that gets you there it’s going to be very hard to turn that into an intrinsic one 48 hours from now.
“We have a bunch of competitors out there. They’re smart. They know what this means. But you have to have the gratitude and perspective of what the game is. You felt that [intensity] in the middle of the first quarter. Both teams were like in a brother-in-law game at the beginning and we took it to a different level.”
The term “brother in law” game is a new Mazzulla-ism but it’s his way of saying the two teams were rather polite and cooperative until the occasion called for more intensity and passion.
Pritchard was more than happy to deliver, wowing the crowd with series of stepback 3-pointers. There was one in the first half where he may have given a little shove to the Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt before hitting a triple in front of the Celtics bench. He added a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half for a 10-point lead, then started barking to anyone in Lakerland who would listen.
Finally, Pritchard sent the Lakers faithful into the dusk with a stepback for a 22-point lead with 3:22 left. He turned around and started talking to Miller, who was sitting midcourt.
“It’s obviously a rivalry, so it feels good to always win that one and do it for the city,” he said.
When asked what he said to Miller: Pritchard said: “You’ll have to read my lips. I like Reggie. We have a good relationship. He’s asked me to send his son ballhandling [videos]. Definitely a relationship and something I value because it’s Reggie Miller.”
After this performance, no NBA observers, especially ones who focus on the Western Conference, should be the least bit surprised at the Celtics success. They are playing .661 basketball, have the third-most road wins in the NBA, with Brown a legitimate MVP candidate and a supporting cast that has improved immensely as the season has progressed.
Mazzulla said he doesn’t take offense to the constant questions on the road about the Celtics’ surprising season. He understands the team was considered a play-in candidate at best the moment Jayson Tatum sustained a serious injury and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens traded away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
But that pessimism never seeped into the locker room and Mazzulla is not going to spend the final third of the season telling critics “I told you so” when discussing his teams ascension.
“The season is 82, not 55 (games), so you can’t get caught up with what you’ve done in the past, good or bad,” Mazzulla said. “And I think if you do that it impacts the present and future. I’ve always said the strength of this team is the guys’ ability to take what we need from the past and apply it to the present and work on it for the future, regardless of the result.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.