- The “stay ready crew” that comes off the Celtics‘ bench is significantly better than the reserves Joe Mazzulla had to work with last season, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Mazzulla rested his starters for the final six minutes of Friday’s win over Sacramento, giving the reserves some experience with a game on the line. “I feel like he’s doing a great job of keeping everybody involved,” Svi Mykhailiuk said. “That makes everybody stay ready because you might get that call at any time. You’ve got to be prepared, make sure you do your work, and buy into whatever we’re doing. You’ve got to understand we’ve got one of the best teams in the league — five, six All-Stars on the team — and just seeing the big picture. I think tonight showed that we’re a really deep team and coach really believes in us.”
- Xavier Tillman, whom the Celtics acquired at midseason to provide frontcourt depth, was thrilled to hit his first NBA game-winner Friday night, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. Tillman sank a floater with 7.4 seconds remaining, and Boston held on for a one-point victory. “It was great getting the opportunity to do that,” Tillman said. “I feel like because it was crunch time, I was really locked in. Obviously the crowd was loud, but I was really zoned in, so it didn’t faze me as much. But it was great practice as far as what we’re going to go through as far as having that mental fortitude.”