Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla revealed the text he got from Jaylen Brown leading into his dominant performance against the Clippers.

There was always going to be a reckoning for the Boston Celtics. When Jayson Tatum went down with a torn Achilles during last year’s playoffs, the immediate question wasn’t just how long Boston would be without its franchise star – but what the Celtics would look like in his absence.

The NBA announced today that Head Coach Joe Mazzulla has been named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the month. The title is for games played from December 1 to December 31. It’s Mazzulla’s fifth career honor after guiding the Celtics to a 9-3 record in December with a league-best 124.3 offensive rating.

Joe Mazzulla gave Jaylen Brown some much-deserved flowers for his remarkable consistency for the Celtics in the month of December.

The Celtics came out flat to start the third quarter against the Pacers on Monday night and it did not take long for Joe Mazzulla to take drastic action. The Celtics head coach pulled his entire starting five with 9:22 remaining in the third quarter,

Thirty-five games into the season, the Boston Celtics are the two seed in the Eastern Conference and it’s time to reset expectations. If we’re talking about the most surprising teams in the NBA — in a good way — the conversation starts with either the Boston Celtics or the San Antonio Spurs.