Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla wants to add power plays, fighting to NBA

BOSTON — The Celtics’ dominance from beyond the 3-point arc has prompted some to call for NBA rule changes.

But probably not the ones Joe Mazzulla has in mind.

The Celtics’ head coach was asked Tuesday what tweaks he’d make to the NBA rulebook if he had the power to do so. His answer: introduce two elements from the other sport played inside TD Garden — power plays and fighting.

“Basketball is one of the only sports that doesn’t have a power play,” Mazzulla said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak & Bertrand.” “I think soccer just put in a blue card where a guy has to go off and it’s 10-on-9. So we should have a power play where — because let’s say you get a technical or let’s say you get a take foul. You get the one shot, but you’re not really rewarded for that because if you miss it, you don’t get the reward for the take foul.

“You know what I mean? So there should be, like, a power play where on a take foul, on a technical, you have to play 5-on-4 for five seconds or three passes.”

Making a team play man-down for an entire possession “might be a little extreme,” Mazzulla said. But for a brief period, to give the non-offending team a clear but fleeting advantage? That could be fun.

“I think we should institute power plays where instead of taking the ball out on the side, if you commit a foul, the guy goes to the other side of halfcourt and he can’t leave the halfcourt circle for, like, three seconds,” Mazzulla said.

Mazzulla’s other proposal shouldn’t come as a surprise given his affinity for combat sports and, well, generally intense demeanor.

“The biggest thing that we rob people of from an entertainment standpoint is you can’t fight anymore,” said Mazzulla, who tore his meniscus during a jiu-jitsu sparring session late last season. “I wish you could bring back fighting. … You want to talk about robbing the league of entertainment, what’s more entertaining than a little scuffle?

“How come in baseball they’re allowed to clear the benches? How come in hockey they’re allowed — I don’t understand. … I just don’t get why some sports are allowed to clear the benches. They have bats and weapons; we don’t. We just have a ball. The other sport has one of the hardest surfaces and a puck and a stick, and we’re not allowed to throw down a little bit.”

The odds of either of the NBA adopting either of those rules are about as high as the Celtics’ chances of missing the playoffs. Mazzulla’s defending champs are off to a 4-0 start after beating the Milwaukee Bucks 119-108 on Monday night and are widely viewed as championship favorites.