Former Lakers coach Pat Riley was honored on Sunday with his own statue outside of Crypto.com Center during a private ceremony ahead of a Lakers-Celtics showdown.
The current Heat team president made a point of showing his disdain for Boston during his speech ahead of the historic rivalry.
“The time has come to kick some a**,” Riley said. “To kick some Boston a**.”
The Lakers did not get the memo from Riley’s speech as Boston cruised to a 111-89 win at Crypto.com arena as Riley and several other Lakers legends watched from the stands.
When informed about Riley’s comments after the rout, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla couldn’t help but get excited about the remarks.
“He said that?” Mazzulla asked. “I wish I would have heard that. That’s fun, that’s awesome. Damn.”
Mazzulla has never been shy about looking for motivation in other places but he emphasized he wanted his team not to get too caught up in the rivalry and atmosphere on Sunday night.
“No I don’t,” Mazzulla said. “Because I think we have to find a way to do it at Phoenix. If it’s a short-term thing, if it’s an extrinsic thing that gets you, it’s going to be very hard to turn that into an intrinsic one 48 hours from now, but I think having the gratitude and perspective of what a game like this means, and being aware of your atmosphere brings out the best in people.”
The win on Sunday night capped a dominant stretch for Boston in which the team has won three straight games and eight of their last nine overall. Boston has won seven of those contests by double digits.
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The bright lights won’t be out Tuesday night when the Celtics take on a shorthanded Suns squad playing without Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. Mazzulla hopes the mindset will remain the same as the team looks to improve to 3-0 on their road trip.
“We are only a product of what we do tomorrow when we do the next day and that’s just the story,” Mazzulla said. “And if we would’ve lost this game by one, tomorrow’s film session has to be as detailed and as disciplined as is going to be with the result that we have. And so that’s the story. It’s not done yet and we haven’t done anything. All we’ve done is stick to the process of winning on both ends of the floor, put our head down, don’t overreact to a good win or to a bad loss and get better in the next game.”
