“ They probably had something to motivate them even more against us. » Erik Spoelstra hits the nail on the head when it comes to discussing the state of mind of the Celtics regarding his training. The two teams have continued to meet in the playoffs for five years.
“ I think this is the fourth time I’ve played them in the playoffs “, figures Jayson Tatum, whose team wanted to erase last year’s defeat in the conference final, after a crazy series finished in seven games.
The context of this series didn’t have much to do with it. The Floridians had to do without Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier. Last night, they were also deprived of their rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. Despite these multiple handicaps, the Heat caused a sensation by snatching the second set to regain home advantage.
Behind that, the Celtics continued: +20 points in Game 3, +14 points in Game 4 and finally +34 in the final round last night. An eloquent statistic reported by ESPN, during their four winning matches, the Celtics were only behind for… 56 seconds in total. In the last 25 years, only the Thunder had done better against the Mavs in the first round in 2016.
Jayson Tatum wanted the Heat in the first round
We will therefore understand that after this alert at home, the Celtics kept their seriousness, while the Heat still had just as much difficulty scoring. Miami was held below 90 points in the next three games. Euphoric at 3-points during their victory, the Floridians scored fewer winning baskets in the following three matches (21) than in this single match (23).
“ We had to finish the job “, says Jaylen Brown. “ This is how things should be, we had to learn from our mistakes and things we could have done better and apply them the following season, because we are trying to have a different result this year », Adds Jayson Tatum, evoking the maturity of his team.
The winger expected and wanted to face the Heat in the first round. “ In the sense that last year, we perhaps relaxed a little bit by playing Atlanta. But knowing the history with Miami, knowing how hard they play and how well coached they are, for a first round of the playoffs, regardless of our position, we had to be ready to fight “, develops Jayson Tatum.
His coach Joe Mazzulla says he was not concerned about what happened last year. “ In the end, I appreciated the way we approached the series. Whoever our opponent is, we showed good intentions in terms of details and consistency in the physical dimension. We will wake up tomorrow and we will have to do the same thing against another team », Asks the technician. In this case against the Cavs or the Magic.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Jayson Tatum | 74 | 35.7 | 47.1 | 37.6 | 83.3 | 0.9 | 7.2 | 8.1 | 4.9 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 26.9 |
| Jaylen Brown | 70 | 33.5 | 49.9 | 35.4 | 70.3 | 1.2 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 3.6 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 23.0 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 57 | 29.6 | 51.6 | 37.5 | 85.8 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 7.2 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 20.1 |
| Derrick White | 73 | 32.6 | 46.1 | 39.6 | 90.1 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 5.2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 15.2 |
| Jrue Holiday | 69 | 32.8 | 48.0 | 42.9 | 83.3 | 1.2 | 4.2 | 5.4 | 4.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 12.5 |
| Payton Pritchard | 82 | 22.3 | 46.8 | 38.5 | 82.1 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 9.6 |
| Sam Hauser | 79 | 22.0 | 44.6 | 42.4 | 89.5 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 9.0 |
| Al Horford | 65 | 26.8 | 51.1 | 41.9 | 86.7 | 1.3 | 5.1 | 6.4 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 8.6 |
| Neemias Queta | 28 | 11.9 | 64.4 | 0.0 | 71.4 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 4.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 5.5 |
| Luke Kornett | 63 | 15.6 | 70.0 | 100.0 | 90.7 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 5.3 |
| Xavier Tillman, Sr. | 20 | 13.7 | 51.5 | 28.6 | 57.1 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 4.0 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | 41 | 10.1 | 41.6 | 38.9 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 4.0 |
| Drew Peterson | 3 | 7.6 | 66.7 | 60.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 3.7 |
| Oshae Brissett | 55 | 11.5 | 44.4 | 27.3 | 60.2 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 3.7 |
| Lamar Stevens | 19 | 6.4 | 46.7 | 37.5 | 72.7 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.8 |
| Dalano Banton | 24 | 7.1 | 37.3 | 12.5 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 2.3 |
| Jaden Springer | 17 | 7.6 | 43.3 | 18.2 | 87.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.1 |
| Jd Davison | 8 | 4.9 | 41.7 | 42.9 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| Jordan Walsh | 9 | 9.3 | 40.0 | 22.2 | 50.0 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.7 |
