Joe Mazzulla on the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown spotlight: 'It's not really that big of a deal'

Joe Mazzulla didn't make much of the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown storyline after Boston's 123-101 win in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Asked in his postgame news conference how Tatum had handled the attention on him and his former teammate over the past few days, the Celtics coach kept it simple.

"They're just words," Mazzulla said in video of the session posted by CLNS Media's Celtics Press Conferences channel. "No one's throwing anything at him. No one's attacking him. So, like, it's not really that big of a deal."

He added that Tatum has "probably been dealing with the spotlight since he was like 12 years old."

"His emotional intelligence is underrated"

Mazzulla said Tatum doesn't get enough credit for his emotional stability and maturity. He said Tatum's quiet manner sometimes comes across as aloof or uninterested, "but it's the opposite."

He also shared what Tatum told the locker room after the win: that the night "means nothing" if Boston doesn't play the way it needs to the next day. "His mental toughness is underrated," Mazzulla said. "His emotional intelligence is underrated, and his ability to just stay focused on what matters most is one of his best gifts."

Tatum finished with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks, according to the ESPN box score. Brown, in his first game against Boston since the trade, had 13 points and was minus-27.

Answering the third-quarter run

Most of Mazzulla's answers were about how Boston handled Philadelphia's runs. "That's a team that can bury you with just one run," he said.

The ESPN play-by-play lines up with how he described it. Boston led 69-56 early in the third quarter before the 76ers cut it to six, and the Celtics called a timeout at 8:28. Philadelphia tied it at 76 on a Dean Wade 3-pointer with 4:02 left in the quarter. Boston then went on a 29-6 run that reached 105-82 with 8:17 to play.

Mazzulla credited execution out of a timeout, with Payton Pritchard hitting two 3-pointers against the same coverage. Pritchard made both from about 25 feet in a 41-second stretch and finished plus-26, the best mark in the game.

The coach wasn't happy with everything. "We fouled too much," he said, pointing to a free-throw gap he put at 26 to 4 at one point. By the final buzzer, Philadelphia had shot 28 free throws to Boston's five, according to ESPN.

On Paul George

Mazzulla said Paul George "took ownership" of the start of the fourth quarter. George scored 36 in his first game back in Philadelphia, as our Tuesday top five covered. On the emotion of the return, Mazzulla noted that George "has been traded four times, so it's not the first time that he's had to go through something like that."

Next up

Boston is 9-2, and Mazzulla said the Celtics play again "in less than 24 hours," against what he called "a well coached Toronto team." His question for the group: "Who do we want to be tomorrow?"