Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla told Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown to ‘get your (expletive) together’

LOS ANGELES — Jaylen Brown said he was paraphrasing. Jayson Tatum said he got the sentiment. While neither player disclosed every detail of what Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told them before they played the Lakers, the message was clear: “Get your (expletive) together.”

That’s been Mazzulla’s coaching style as he navigates his first season as Boston’s top guy. Mazzulla said he’s tried to be a player’s coach as someone who can relate to guys while also trusting them to figure out their own issues. But with the Celtics struggling after losing to the Clippers, he put the responsibility to lead the team on Brown and Tatum’s shoulders.

“Before the game, he just let his presence be felt,” Brown said. “He let us know from the top to the bottom, starting with me and Jayson, we gotta be better and everybody else is going to follow suit. So he went directly at us, encouraging us to be better, embracing the challenge.”

Mazzulla’s words worked for the most part. The Celtics were feisty to start Tuesday’s game against the Lakers, building a lead that ballooned to 20 points. But the Lakers clawed their way back into the game, even taking a 13-point lead with less than five minutes to play.

The Celtics did come back from the deficit to steal the 122-118 victory over Los Angeles on Tuesday. Tatum hit a huge shot to tie the game and force overtime. Brown, Tatum and the rest of the Celtics validated their coach’s words from before the game to improve to a 22-7 record.

“He pointed me out,” Tatum said. “He basically told me it starts with me. Last game I played like (expletive), and he told me that. Told me the way I play, the rest of the guys are going to follow. And he went down the line, went down to JB, went down to (Marcus) Smart, said it was our responsibility.”

The Celtics have responded well to Mazzulla’s teachings all year. The interim coach has the Celtics playing some of the best basketball in the league, including the No. 1-ranked offense and net rating. There are still some areas Mazzulla needs to learn and improve — he’ll be the first to admit that — but he has the Celtics operating efficiently almost every night.

There are also lessons that come from Mazzulla’s handling of timeouts. While plenty of coaches call timeout when their team gives up a run, that hasn’t been the case for the most part for the C’s. There’s a reason for that, Grant Williams said, as Mazzulla trusts them to figure out momentum swings on the fly. Williams called it a “learning curve” but in a good way as the C’s need to find their own way to success.

Those lessons the Celtics learn in a December regular-season game are growing pains. Mazzulla and the C’s have their eyes on the playoffs. So the C’s could drop winnable games in the regular season. But if they gain valuable lessons in the process, the theory is that those efforts will pay off when the Celtics are on a deep playoff run.

“Joe tells us all the time he’s not going save us (with timeouts) — especially in the course of a game where we’re not playing the way that we should be,” Tatum said. “A lot of times he tells us to figure it out and he challenges us. That’s what he did tonight.”

The C’s passed their first test of adversity this season by beating the Lakers. Boston struggled this week as it dropped two straight games for the first time this season, both in blowout fashion against the Warriors and Clippers. While it’s far too early to panic — especially because of the Celtics’ record — Tuesday’s game was at least an opportunity for the Celtics to bounce back.

That’s what Mazzulla said he’s been about thus far this season: Teaching the Celtics how to win in different ways. While Boston has plenty of experience blowing out opponents, Mazzulla said games like Tuesday’s win will be beneficial in the playoffs when the stakes ramp up.

“We got so used to winning one way at the beginning of the year,” Mazzulla said. “You have to win in different ways. … We’ve won by blowing teams out. We’ve won by now coming back and we’ve won by executing late game. So this trip taught us a lot in the sense of what we need to do to win games in different ways.”

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