The Celtics will host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday in their fourth and final preseason game.
In Joe Mazzulla’s mind, that’s four too many.
Boston’s head coach said Tuesday that he’d prefer for the NBA preseason to feature no games, only practices.
“I’d rather have no preseason games and practice every day,” Mazzulla said. “I hate preseason games. You should just have practice for a month straight.”
Why? Because coaches naturally have much more control over the structure and tempo of practices, without variables like which players are participating. The Celtics, for example, have yet to face a team this preseason that wasn’t sitting nearly all of its regulars. Boston also held multiple starters out of its first two games before fielding close to a full roster in Sunday night’s blowout win over the shorthanded Cleveland Cavaliers.
“At the end of the day, it’s a preseason game,” Mazzulla said. “To me, you come in here and practice, and you’re just in your work, you know? So the idea is to try to make the preseason game as close to practice as you can, because you’re always going through things, you know? Who’s on a minute’s restriction, who may be sitting out trying to save yourself for the regular season — all those things which are important, but, yeah, we should just have like 30 practices before the game.”
Mazzulla has made those practices especially aggressive and fast-paced this fall to prepare players for the Celtics’ plan to push the pace this season. Payton Pritchard and Chris Boucher have called training camp “a war.” Xavier Tillman said Tuesday’s session was “very intense.”
“It’s been good, though,” Tillman said. “Everybody’s getting pushed from top to bottom in terms of, like, today, we guarded full-court for like 10 minutes. It brought me back to high school. So it’s been really good. It’s been really good, intense, and I think we’ve been preparing the right way for what we want to do for the season.”
#### Always fighting
Tillman told reporters over the weekend that Mazzulla — a mixed martial arts aficionado who spars in his spare time — brings up the concept of fighting “every day” with his players.
Asked why on Tuesday, the Celtics coach said it sends a message that applies to all facets of life.
“Everybody’s fighting something, whether they’re willing to admit it or not,” Mazzulla explained. “You could be fighting a cold, could he fighting allergies, could be fighting with your wife or your husband, you could be fighting with somebody. Everybody’s in a fight for something — you fight for a parking spot, fight for armchairs so you can be more comfortable. You fight for all of that.
“There’s a fight everywhere, so you have to have an understanding about how you’re willing to do that. I think in fighting, you have to have self-awareness, you have to have humility, you have to know who you are, you have to know what you’re good at, what you suck at. You have to know what the opponent’s good at, what they suck at, and you have to have a level of humility of, ‘I can’t be great, we can’t be great, if we don’t do this together.’
“It immediately tests your self-awareness, your humility and your ability to go after something. So it’s a great presentation of what life’s about, and you have to be able to go through it.”
#### Rebound, rebound, rebound
The Celtics’ biggest weakness so far this preseason: defensive rebounding.
Despite playing three depleted opponents, Boston ranks 23rd in the NBA in defensive rebounding rate, surrendering offensive boards on 35.7% of the opposition’s misses. Last year’s Celtics team was far better in that area (28.3%; seventh-best in the league).
Protecting the defensive glass could be a persistent issue for Boston, which is playing without its top three rebounders from last season (Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford), and it’s been a point of emphasis for Mazzulla. Against the Cavs on Sunday, Mazzulla frequently subbed out players who were beaten for offensive rebounds.
To improve there, the Celtics will need more from their unproven frontcourt.
“Just do the work,” said the 6-foot-8 Boucher, who started as a small-ball center against Cleveland. “I think that’s something where you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and accept that I’ve got to do my job and box out if they say box out, jump high if they say jump high, put in more work in the weight room if you’ve got to get stronger. Whatever it is, we’ve got to find a way to get those rebounds, and it’s very possible if we put in the effort and emphasis on it.”
Tillman, also an undersized big at 6-8, said the Celtics have spent too much time ball-watching.
“(We need to) box out, honestly,” he said. “As funny as it may seem, if you actually sat and watched the games and watched a shot go up and the team got an offensive rebound, the majority of the time, one of us is just staring at the ball versus actually finding your man, hitting your man and then going and getting the ball. So it’s more intentional versus any skill or anything like that.”
The 6-foot-10 Luka Garza also was temporarily yanked after letting Cavaliers wing Dean Wade recover his own rebound after a missed 3-pointer. Neemias Queta, the only 7-footer on Boston’s roster, logged just seven minutes Sunday night.
#### Walsh on the mend
After sitting out the last two games with an adductor injury, third-year wing Jordan Walsh practiced Tuesday and earned a positive review from Mazzulla. He then spent roughly half an hour after practice defending Jaylen Brown 1-on-1.
Mazzulla said Walsh, who suffered his injury in the first quarter of Boston’s preseason opener, will be good to go Wednesday night against Toronto.
“He came back well,” Mazzulla said. “Had a great practice today. Was physical. He’ll be ready to go tomorrow and continue to get better and better.”
Walsh is one of four young wings hoping to break into Mazzulla’s rotation this season. Second-year pro Baylor Scheierman, free agent pickup Josh Minott and first-round rookie Hugo Gonzalez are the others, with Minott doing the most to help his cause this preseason.