Joe Mazzulla is not someone who hides his emotions during a game. Be it his players or the officials, he is always prepared to give them an earful if he thinks they are not doing their job right. Moreover, the head coach has also admitted publicly that he “likes yelling” at the refs. Obviously, that often gets him in trouble. And that’s exactly what happened during tonight’s Wizards game as a heated exchange with the referee led to a penalty for the Celtics coach.

Well, the incident occurred in the third quarter after Jaylen Brown pump-faked Alex Sarr on a drive and attempted a layup through contact. Unfortunately, he missed the shot, leading to a transition three for the Wizards. Sure enough, Mazzulla was fuming after the play because he believed JB got fouled by Sarr, and the head coach charged at the official to question his non-call. He had to be held back by assistant coach Sam Cassell.

But Mazzulla continued chirping at the official. As expected, he got penalized with a technical foul, which riled up the head coach even more. As the Wizards crowd filled the arena with cheers, Mazzulla charged again toward the official but was held back by Tony Dobbins.

After the situation settled, Jordan Poole shot the resulting free throw but bricked it. Mazzulla continued to remain fired up. Well, it is possible that he let his emotions out to pump up his squad because he has been known to do that in the past. After getting a tech during a recent Bucks game, he confessed, “No, no frustration. We were just trying to create as much chaos as we can. That was it.”

It was Joe Mazzulla’s plan all along

As it turns out, Mazzulla had a hidden agenda behind his outburst at the refs. Sure enough, he revealed it postgame, “It wasn’t really about energizing the team, I think it was just manipulating the environment. I thought it was kind of what the environment needed at the time. You just have to make those calls from time to time.” He believed that the heated exchange changed the energy in the Wizards’ arena.

Detailing what manipulating the environment means, he said, “Just noise, chaos, energy, anxiety. A little bit of everything.” Intentional or not, it worked in the Celtics’ favor as they outscored the Wizards by nine points in the final quarter and added another win to their column. Moreover, the squad went on a 12-4 run after Mazzulla’s tech. They are now 13-3 this season and have won two of their three NBA Cup encounters.