LOS ANGELES — Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley was enjoying his day in the sun on Sunday afternoon. As it shined in sunny downtown L.A., the "Showtime" Lakers architect was honored with his own statue during a private ceremony outside Crypto.com Center. The 80-year-old accepted the tribute graciously, but not without throwing in a jab at the hated Boston Celtics.
Just a few hours before the Celtics and Lakers squared off for the second time this season, Riley said it was time to kick Boston's behind. When these comments were relayed to the current head coach of the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, he was upset. But, not because Riley dissed his team.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe was mad he didn't hear about the colorful remarks before.
"He said that? I wish I would've heard that," Mazzulla said with a smile during his postgame press conference. "That's fun."
While Riley celebrated his statue outside, what awaited him inside the arena wouldn't be as amusing. He watched courtside as the overachieving Celtics smacked the rival Lakers 111-89, giving Boston its third straight win while L.A. had its lowest-scoring performance of 2026.
"That's awesome," Mazzulla said after learning that Riley really did diss his squad. "So good, so good."
Although there was a lot of extracurricular activity happening on Sunday — including Riley's new statue, the multitude of legendary Lakers in attendance, and Lakers star LeBron James becoming the first NBA player to reach 43,000 points — Mazzulla just wanted his guys to treat it like the 55th game of a long regular season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"No I don't," he replied when asked if he told his players to treat tonight's primetime contest differently. "Because I think we have to find a way to do it at Phoenix."
Instead of soaking up a blowout win over the Lakers and the Celtics' first season sweep of their rivals since the 2022-23 campaign, Mazzulla was already mentally preparing his players for a Tuesday night showdown with the scrappy Phoenix Suns.
"If it's a short-term thing, if it's an extrinsic thing that gets you (going), it's going to be very hard to turn that into an intrinsic one 48 hours from now," Mazzulla emphasized. "But I think having the gratitude and perspective of what the game like this means, and being aware of your atmosphere brings out the best in people."
If anybody was aware of their surroundings and ready for the moment on Sunday, it was Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year dazzled with a game-high 30 points on 71.4% shooting (with 11 of those coming in the fourth quarter) and played until the final buzzer despite the score.
"I think his confidence comes from his work ethic," Mazzulla praised. "I think it also comes from his humility...Tonight, at the end of the game, he took a shot with like 42 seconds left, but he came up (to me and said), 'I got to get those other guys involved.' So he's just constantly wanting to learn, constantly wanting to get better."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLike Pritchard, Mazzulla also aims to constantly improve. It helps explain why he refused to take a victory lap after the Celtics spoiled a big day in Laker Land.
"It's not done yet," Mazzulla said of the season. "We haven’t done anything. All we've done is stick to the process of winning on both ends of the floor.”
At 37-19, Boston remains in second place in the Eastern Conference and will continue to look forward to the playoffs — when what a team has accomplished is truly measured.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Joe Mazzulla is all for Celtics-Lakers beef that Pat Riley embodies
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