Joe Mazzulla stands by putting Mitchell Robinson in before his two missed free throws: ‘There’ll be another time’ as the Celtics treat a Nets win ‘like a loss’

Joe Mazzulla had Jayson Tatum’s overtime buzzer-beater to talk about on Tuesday night. He spent much of his postgame news conference defending the decision that nearly cost the Celtics the game. With Boston up four and about four seconds left in regulation against the winless Brooklyn Nets, Mazzulla sent center Mitchell Robinson back in during a timeout. Robinson grabbed a missed free throw, was fouled right away, missed both of his free throws with 3.0 seconds left, and rookie Mikel Brown Jr. hit a three to send the game to overtime.

Mazzulla said he would make the same call again. “There’s times where you have to empower guys and you have to put guys in a position to say, listen, we need you to win, and to be a different team, we need you to be at your best,” he said. “Mitch takes on that responsibility.”

Boston won 125-124 at TD Garden when Tatum hit a jumper from the free-throw line as overtime ended. He finished with 40 points. The Celtics are 3-1. The Nets are 0-4. Mazzulla’s message for Wednesday’s film session was the same one he gave after a win last week: “We just have to treat it like a loss. You can’t treat it like a win.”

How the last 4.2 seconds of regulation went

Boston led 116-111 with 13.3 seconds left after Derrick White’s two free throws. Brown Jr. made two at the other end. Tatum then split a pair with 4.2 seconds left, which made it 117-113. Brooklyn got the rebound, and Neemias Queta was called for a loose-ball foul. That sent Julius Randle to the line with the Nets in the bonus.

Boston called timeout, and Mazzulla made two changes: Robinson in for Sam Hauser and Luka Garza in for Queta. Randle made the first free throw to cut it to 117-114 and missed the second. Robinson grabbed the rebound, and Moritz Wagner fouled him at once. Robinson missed the first free throw and then the second. Wagner rebounded, Brooklyn called timeout, and Brown Jr. hit a 24-footer off a pass from Keon Ellis to tie it 117-117.

Robinson finished 1-of-4 from the line on the night and is 2-of-8 this season. He has made about 51 percent of his free throws in his career. He had 7 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes and was minus-17, the worst mark on either team. Garza, who replaced him partway through overtime, was plus-18. Tatum went 18-of-22 from the line, and Boston made 30 of its 38 free throws.

Joe Mazzulla on having Mitchell Robinson in late:

“There's times where you have to empower guys and you’ve got to put guys in position to say, ‘Listen, we need you to win. And to be a different team, we need you to be at your best.’ Mitch takes on that responsibility. I… pic.twitter.com/VpZSW4ft0N

— Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) October 28, 2026

‘Prevention and then there’s care’

Mazzulla split the ending into two parts. The first was the foul that put Randle on the line. “There’s prevention and then there’s care,” he said. “You prevent yourself from being in that position by not fouling 94 feet from the basket, so you don’t have to be in that situation.”

The second was what to do once Boston was in that spot. Mazzulla said he understood that Robinson is still working on his free throws. “At the end of the day, what a guy really wants is more empowerment and the belief to be like, you know what, you got to make these, you got to work at it, you got to make them,” he said. “And there’ll be another time where we’ll go to that exact same situation and he will.”

This was not the first time this season Mazzulla has publicly backed his new center. Robinson won the title with the Knicks in June and signed a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston in July. He said he “played like trash” in the season-opening loss at Detroit. Mazzulla answered at the time that the standard for Robinson is higher because the center is “at the nucleus” of what the Celtics do on both ends.

Treating a one-point win like a loss

Mazzulla called it the first game this season in which Boston did not play well. He said he had watched how his team handled that. “Throughout the game, I’m studying the mentality of our team and the connectivity of our team,” he said. “We’re not going to play well throughout the season. So that’s kind of the first time this year where we weren’t playing well, and wanted to see how we stick together, wanted to see how we connect with each other, how we adapt to that.”

“I thought we handled that piece well, and then I think we can handle the tactical piece better,” he said. “But it is good to be in those positions to expose us to who we are and what we need to work on. So we’ll handle this like a loss tomorrow and we’ll get better.”

Late in overtime, White looked like he had drawn a foul that would have sent him to the line with Boston down one, but the Nets challenged the call and won. With 2.3 seconds left, White inbounded to Tatum for the winner. The game was the second night of a back-to-back for Boston, after a 134-99 win over Chicago on Monday.

What comes next

The Celtics have two days off before they host the Bulls again on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. ET. That is 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Cairo, after Egypt moves its clocks back an hour on Thursday night. Boston then plays at Orlando on Sunday and at Houston on Monday. The Nets are still looking for their first win.