{"id":512712,"date":"2026-01-02T23:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/512712\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:16:11","slug":"celtics-joe-mazzulla-wins-coach-of-the-month-for-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/512712\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics&#8217; Joe Mazzulla wins Coach of the Month for December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/boston-celtics\/2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Boston Celtics;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Boston Celtics<\/a> head coach Joe Mazzulla doesn&#8217;t live or die by outside recognition. In fact, after Celtics guard Derrick White congratulated him for winning Coach of the Month back in 2024, Mazzulla responded that &#8220;nobody cares.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mazzulla was named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month once again for his efforts in December, yet his reaction probably hasn&#8217;t changed. The humble New England native helped the Celtics earn a 9-3 record last month and they started off 2026 on a high note with a double-digit win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/sacramento-kings\/23\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sacramento Kings;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sacramento Kings<\/a> on New Year&#8217;s Day. Mazzulla has now received Coach of the Month honors five times in his four years at the helm in Boston.<\/p>\n<p>Under Mazzulla, the 2025-26 Celtics have undoubtedly exceeded expectations. They&#8217;re 21-12 overall and in third place in the Eastern Conference, just two games shy of tying the second-place New York Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not Boston can return to the top of the standings remains to be seen, but the playoffs feel very attainable. Up next for Mazzulla&#8217;s men are the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/los-angeles-clippers\/12\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Clippers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> \u2014 who&#8217;ve won six games in a row \u2014 on Saturday night at the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to &#8220;Havlicek Stole the Pod&#8221; on:<\/p>\n<p>Blue Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>iTunes: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n<p>YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/celticswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/celtics\/2026\/01\/02\/celtics-joe-mazzulla-eastern-conference-coach-of-the-month\/87998227007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was honored by the NBA for his winning ways;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was honored by the NBA for his winning ways<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla doesn&#8217;t live or die by outside recognition. In fact, after Celtics guard&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,75,71558,1243,1409,2675,135,6,191,477],"class_list":{"0":"post-512712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-coach-of-the-month","11":"tag-derrick-white","12":"tag-eastern-conference","13":"tag-joe-mazzulla","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-sacramento-kings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115828056756613295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}