Damon Stoudamire was 10 minutes away from sitting on the Boston bench on Tuesday night when he was told he wouldn’t need to sit down at all. Shortly before kickoff against the visiting Houston Rockets, the second-year Celtics assistant coach learned he had been upped in the depth chart and would be occupying the sideline during his first game as interim NBA head coach.
After Joe Mazzulla was ruled out in the 11the hour due to eye irritation, Stoudamire was next. The announcement came as a surprise to him, to his mother in the stands visiting for the holidays, and to everyone in the arena. Heck, the players didn’t even know that until Stoudamire’s name was announced at the end of the roster introductions.
“In many ways, it’s better this way,” said the former NBA point guard and 1996 Rookie of the Year, who didn’t have time to get nervous due to the last-minute nature of the situation. “Just go out there and do what we did. We have drawn up game plans as staff, obviously. We pretty much know what we wanted to do. Joe couldn’t go tonight, and I stepped in. But honestly, it’s a collaborative effort. Everyone plays their part in situations like this. It’s been like that pretty much all season. So, for me, it was just a matter of going out there and really not screwing it up.
He never came close to screwing it up, as the Celtics didn’t skip a beat. They outshot the Rockets, 126-102, earning their third straight win behind a 39-point effort from Jaylen Brown, a 38-point performance from Jayson Tatum and an 11-point, 15-rebound double-double off the bench. .for Robert Williams.
“The only difference was Joe wasn’t over there chewing gum,” Tatum joked after the game.
On a more serious note, Tatum praised Stoudamire for stepping in without warning: “It was kind of like when someone is missing from the team, someone has to step in and fill that void. It’s not just the work of one person. We have a coaching staff who support each other and help the team. We’re all on the same team, basically. So when the coach is out, it’s just the next man mentality.
Stoudamire said the Jays made it easy for him with their dominance. The pair combined for 77 points and missed just one basket apiece to become the first Celtics teammates to score more than 40 points in the same game.
However, Stoudamire didn’t just twiddle his thumbs, letting the game play out before him. He was active on the sidelines and in hugs, as Brown details.
“I think he held his ground pretty well,” said Brown, who scored 15 points in the first quarter and 14 more in the third. He tried to organize us. Sometimes he called timeouts and let us know where we needed to be better and stuff like that. For him not being ready (to step in) and to organize us, to try good sets, I think he did a good job.
The team could have crumbled due to the last minute change, but they didn’t as they trusted Stoudamire’s ability to help implement the game plan.
Mazzulla conveyed that feeling of confidence to his interim head coach just before leaving to take care of his eye.
“He just told me the same thing he said when he took over,” Stoudamire said. He said, “I trust you. You’re my guy, my right hand.” Go ahead and do what you need to do. I trust you to do the right thing.
Mazzulla spoke publicly about that trust a few weeks ago. After being named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in October and November, he said he felt the award should have been called ‘staff of the month’ due to the involvement of his assistant coaches in the team’s success, even if they weren’t in the head coaches’ spotlight.
On Tuesday evening, one of those assistants was finally able to share some of those spotlights. Stoudamire stepped forward and the C’s rallied behind him proudly.
“Damon is one of my favorite people in the organization,” Brown said. “It was fun to go out there and get a win for him.”
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