Celtics haven’t won a championship yet, and they refuse to act like it’s inevitable

DALLAS — The Boston Celtics haven’t won a championship yet. But they seem to be the only ones who know that.

Reporters gathered around for what could be the last scrum of the season, and all of the inquiries took on a similar tone. They asked about what it would mean to win, how he avoids complacency in a moment like this, and what the players are feeling.

“Are you guys all gonna find creative ways to ask the same question?” Mazzulla asked during his practice media availability on Friday morning.

Mazzulla effectively refused to answer the first of those three questions. He doesn’t care about winning the Finals yet — just the game in front of him.

“It would mean everything in the world to me to win Game 4,” he said when asked about what it would mean to win a title.

The second point is one Mazzulla has addressed all year. Not only that, but it’s a concept he’s beat into his team with often colorful quotes and repetitious mantras.

Winning isn’t allowed to be the expectation in Boston. It needs to be earned and losing breeds experience, not disappointment. So even when asked about the stakes of the situation, Mazzulla purposely ignored the fact that his team was competing to have their names etched in the history books on Friday night.

“It’s important to this next game on the schedule,” he said.

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

As for the third question, Mazzulla never speaks to his players’ emotions. Just their desire to carry out the game plan.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked if the players are relishing this moment. “I know they relish [winning the] margins.”

Luckily, Sam Hauser was there to speak for the locker room. And as one would expect, they are revved up and ready to go.

“I’m excited,” he said. “Could play the game right now.”

With a championship on the line and one of the greatest seasons in Celtics history hanging in the balance, Boston will take the floor on Friday night knowing what’s at stake.

It’s impossible not to be anxious. This is everything the entire team has worked for not only this season but their entire lives. “It don’t mean a thing without the ring,” as they say.

But if the Celtics are going to win the Finals, they’re going to do it their way. And because of the winning, dominant mentality Mazzulla has instilled in them, that means they will treat Game 4 like any other contest. Nothing more. Nothing less.

That’s what has gotten them to this point, and that is what will lead them to Banner 18.