Joe Mazzulla May Have Missed a Big Opportunity Against the Denver Nuggets

The Celtics were slow and sluggish, which felt like an opportunity to use a perfectly-suited "break glass in case of emergency" player

Feb 25, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Boston Celtics Joe Mazzulla reacts after a play during the first half against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images | Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Joe Mazzulla has pushed all the right buttons this season, which is probably why he’s a leading candidate for Coach of the Year. He knows what he wants to accomplish, and he’s getting everyone on board to make it happen.

It doesn’t mean he doesn’t make mistakes. He admitted as much after falling behind by 22 against the Miami Heat before coming back to win.

“I kind of put the guys in a tough spot to start the game, just processing all the what-if scenarios,” Mazzulla said. “We were just kind of bogged down by those things … Once we just kind of simplified it, and once the game went on and we were able to see those reads, I thought the guys did a much better job.”

He might have made another mistake against the Denver Nuggets, missing out on an opportunity to steal a win against a cold-shooting Nikola Jokic and a sick Jamal Murray.

Both teams came out cold, but the Celtics managed to build a lead into halftime. They were back-and-forth in the third quarter until the final two minutes, when the Nuggets went on a game-changing run.

The Celtics were missing everything and they were lacking energy. The third game in four nights seemed to be weighing them down as the Nuggets were starting to take off.

It was a perfect opportunity to turn to Luka Garza.

If nothing else, Garza is a high-energy, pick-setting, offensive-rebounding machine. If there was ever a time to break that glass, it was during this emergency. The offense needed a boost, which Garza has regularly provided when shots weren’t falling and legs felt heavy.

I do understand that putting Garza out there with Jokic on the floor might have like throwing red meat to a junkyard dog, but the Celtics needed something to spark them. They missed 54 shots and only had an offensive rebounding percentage of 23.2%, which is 11.5% lower than their season average. Garza alone is at 13.2%, which leads the team and is 25th in the league.

Garza is also 26th in the NBA in points generated by screen assists (5.8 per game). For a team missing as many shots as the Celtics did, having Garza in to free up some shooters would have been a big help.

That would have been especially helpful in the third quarter, when the Celtics got into the bonus with 7:55, when Neemias Queta got two bonus free throws on a Jokic foul, and then never took another bonus foul shot the rest of the quarter. The Nuggets handed Boston a free pass to aggressively get downhill and the Celtics never took advantage of it. Having Garza in to set screens and get Jaylen Brown or Derrick White downhill might have helped draw a few more fouls, get Boston to the line, and maybe help snap the cold streak once they saw some shots go in.

Obviously we don’t know what would have happened in that spot if Garza had actually gotten in. It might have been a disaster. But the Celtics were already getting a disaster of a game from Vucevic. He wasn’t providing much, and Garza had fresh legs because he hasn’t been playing.

Garza getting DNP-CD’s at this point is not unexpected. It was evident when the Celtics traded for Vucevic that Garza was going to be the odd man out. But on a night where Boston was sluggish and cold, it feels like a missed opportunity to not even try using a hard-working, maniacal offensive rebounder.