{"id":546047,"date":"2026-01-19T04:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546047\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T04:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:31:17","slug":"hawks-coach-quin-snyder-on-what-is-powering-celtics-to-second-in-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546047\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks coach Quin Snyder on what is powering Celtics to second in East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 18, 2026, 9:38 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Boston Celtics have surprised both fans of the team as well as NBA analysts with their top-two start in the Eastern Conference standings at the midpoint of the 2025-26 NBA regular season as much as anyone. And we can include other head coaches around the league as well based on what we have been hearing in recent days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In pregame media press conferences ahead of the Hawks&#8217; recent drubbing at the hands of the Celtics, Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder weighed in on what he has been seeing from Boston since the start of their current campaign. &#8220;(Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla)&#8217;s done a terrific job for starters,&#8221; explained Snyder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iPM3jvDbL-4\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">via<\/a> CLNS Media. &#8220;A new group all adjusting to each other on some level. Some of their foundational guys clearly are, Jaylen (Brown) being the obvious one (with) the year he&#8217;s having.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;He&#8217;s a special player,&#8221; added the Hawks coach. &#8220;He&#8217;s been that. When you see Payton Pritchard&#8217;s evolution in the league, he plays great defense, and he&#8217;s been doing those things, so I think things get spread around different places.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:441px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768797074_689_88244513007-usatsi-28032681.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jan 17, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder during a timeout against the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;So they&#8217;ve had a lot of guys that, maybe in I wouldn&#8217;t say different roles, but just like any team, you evolve with each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;But it&#8217;s a credit to their players and how unselfish and connected they are, that&#8217;s continued. They have been that and they are this year. And then also the job that Joe has done, getting those guys to adjust.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Listen to &#8220;Havlicek Stole the Pod&#8221; on:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Blue Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">iTunes: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 18, 2026, 9:38 p.m. ET The Boston Celtics have surprised both fans of the team as well&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[72400,676,208,3874,7,677,6,72493,72494,72404,72997,72444,72422,72405,72501,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-546047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-hawks","11":"tag-atlantahawks","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbaceltics","16":"tag-sstsnceltics","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagjoe-mazzulla","19":"tag-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnba","21":"tag-tagoverall-positive","22":"tag-tagpayton-pritchard","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115919893045293594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546047","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=546047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}