It was a big last few days for the former Mountaineer and current Boston Celtics head coach, Joe Mazzulla, as he led his team to a 4-3 series win over their rival, the three-seed Philadelphia 76ers.
Mazzulla and his two-seed Celtics found themselves down 3-2 in the series going into Philadelphia for game six on Thursday. The Celtics were able to leave with a 95-86 win and force a deciding game seven in Boston for Sunday.
Mazzulla and the Celtics went into halftime of game seven with a 55-52 lead before exploding on a 33-10 run in the third quarter. The Celtics would win the game 112-88 behind Jayson Tatum’s 51 points. With this series clinching win, this will be the third time in the last four seasons that the Celtics will be taking on the Miami Heat with a spot in the NBA Finals on the line.
Mazzulla is just eight wins away from becoming the sixth coach in the modern era to win an NBA title in their first year as a head coach. Game 1 of the series against Miami is Wednesday night at 8:30.
Over the weekend, we also saw a season end for another former Mountaineer in Miles “Deuce” McBride. McBride and his 5th-seeded New York Knicks fell to the 8th-seeded Miami Heat 96-92 in game 6 to lose the series 4-2. McBride finished his playoff season appearing in eight games and averaging 2.5 minutes per game.
