Celtics’ Oshae Brissett shines in long-awaited opportunity behind support from Joe Mazzulla

Joe Mazzulla often likes to remind Oshae Brissett why the Celtics signed him in the first place this summer.

On Feb. 21, 2022, Brissett killed the Celtics. A member of the Pacers in his third season in the league, Brissett torched the C’s for 27 points, including six 3-pointers. Mazzulla reminds him of that performance to stress how good he is, that he’s been a productive player in the NBA.

“All the time,” Brissett confirmed, smiling. “Just being confident in myself.”

Mazzulla may have found those words of affirmation more necessary recently. Because of how talented the Celtics are, and without a lot of minutes to spare, Brissett – as good as he may be – found himself on the outside looking in at the rotation. For three weeks, Brissett didn’t play. He missed seven consecutive games.

But circumstances changed on Friday. The Celtics were missing four players – Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Luke Kornet and Dalano Banton – and Mazzulla needed to dive deep into his bench. Brissett’s time, finally, came at the start of the second quarter. There was certainly some rust to shake off – Brissett committed two silly fouls in a 12-second span – but he created the spark they’re always hoping he can provide. Jayson Tatum found him for a reverse layup. He drilled a corner 3-pointer. He dunked it on a nice feed from Jrue Holiday. He played solid defense and gave great energy on the glass.

Brissett made all four of his shots and finished with 11 points in 18 minutes in a very productive stint. On a night when several of the deep Celtics reserves made an impact in their win over the Magic, Brissett’s effort was yet another example of an encouraging early theme: Boston’s depth is good, and they have taken advantage of every opportunity.

“He’s been in this league. He’s played on good teams. He’s been coached,” Mazzulla said of Brissett. “Like, he’s just a professional. So it goes back to just the work that he puts in every day. I have no hesitation going with any of those guys on any day because I see what they do daily. So you almost want opportunities like this to affirm their work ethic and their professionalism. And Oshae, we talk just about every day, and I just appreciate his maturity, and I thought he played great.”

Brissett has played bigger roles in his career and probably could have gone elsewhere to find that in free agency, but chose the Celtics for a chance to be part of a championship team. He has embraced a lesser role. He works hard on off days to stay ready for moments like Friday. And in his conversations with Mazzulla, they talk about specific ways he can impact the game.

“He made a good point when him and I talked the other day,” Mazzulla said. “When you get to watch the game, you get to see what our team lacks at times, and then you start to develop an identity of, ‘I can be this for our team.’ And so, as he’s been on different teams, he’s had different identities and he’s seen that he can be that energy guy, whether the great screener or (creating) advantages, offensive rebounds.”

On Friday, Brissett finally had a chance to translate that to the court. He rewarded Mazzulla’s confidence in him, which never wavered.

“I feel like I’ve said this word a million times, but honestly just being confident,” Brissett said. “That’s something that started really in the summer, when we went over our roles and how he views me as a player. Just going out there and doing what they want me to do, the reason they signed me, and that’s rebound, defend, knock down open threes and just be confident playing the game of basketball. So, that’s something we talk about a lot. Every time we make jokes or walk into each other, stuff like that. It feels good, having a coach that believes in me.”

Home court advantage

With Friday’s win, the Celtics improved to 13-0 at home. It’s the second time in franchise history that they have won their first 13 home games of a season. The other time came in the 1957-58 season, when they started 18-0.

The Celtics’ home dominance is an important development. They dropped six games at home during last season’s playoffs, including three in the Eastern Conference Finals that included the Game 7 loss that ended their season. The Celtics certainly don’t want that to happen again and have pride in winning in front of their fans and protecting TD Garden, but they are saying that this dominant home stretch is rooted in an effort to play the right way all the time, regardless of circumstances, situations or location.

“We’ve dropped numerous games that we shouldn’t have or that we didn’t want to over the years at home,” Jaylen Brown said. “I think that coming into the season, one, we got a stellar group and I think that contributes to it, but overall the mentality is like, can’t skip any steps, like every shootaround, every practice, every warmup anytime, even when we walk into the bus, we gotta be aware of what the job is, what the ultimate goal is and what our mission is.

“And as the leader on the team, I’ve been making sure that, personally myself, I ain’t skipping those steps, but I’m not allowing nobody else to skip any steps either. And I think that’s why we’ve been able to have such a good run at home.”