Must Cs: Joe Mazzulla dunks on Kendrick Perkins

I swear head coach Joe Mazzulla reads and listens to everything. Watch the postgame pressers and you’ll notice that Mazzulla not only has an almost photographic memory of the game, but also the narrative that the press has shaped around his team. Just ask the Globe’s Gary Washburn about Boston’s reliance on three-point shooting.

Last week, he spent much of his media availability talking about the perils of expectations and the weight of winning. As the league’s front runner heading into the All-Star break, the Celtics are atop most power rankings and are +260 with our friends over at DraftKings to raise Banner 18.

That level of bar raising comes with the territory when you’re the head coach of a contender and Mazzulla has been better with taking all that in stride and how he interacts with beat writers and national journalists. However, he does get a little prickly when pundits criticize his coaching staff’s approach or the team’s strategy. TNT’s Charles Barley talked about how Boston isn’t tough enough to win a championship, despite their overall record and net rating. And on Tuesday, it was former Celtic and ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins chiming in:

That’s our Playback host Jake Issenberg clapping back to Perkins with facts and Barstool Sports’ Dan Greenberg with more numbers. But nothing — NOTHING — is better when Mazzulla has the biggest mic drop of the day. Check out the Celtics first six points against the Nets last night:

Post up, post up, post up. And in his post-game presser, Mazzulla decided to put the cherry on the sundae:

“We talked about it a week or so ago. We definitely need to post more. I don’t think we’re posting enough,” Mazzulla said. He continued, “I was joking. We’re second in frequency and first in efficiency.”

All we need now is for Stephen A. Smith is to say something stupid in 3…2…1…