Simply 24 hours after being outworked by the Atlanta Hawks of their NBA Cup opener, the Boston Celtics walked the stroll in opposition to the Brooklyn Nets. They talked the speak Tuesday evening, saying that they wanted to be higher and play more durable and did simply that in Brooklyn on the again finish of a back-to-back once they issued followers a 25-point apology of their whomping of the Nets.
“We didn’t really feel nice getting on that airplane final evening… We wished to bounce again,” Jayson Tatum instructed NBC Sports activities Boston’s Abby Chin, after hanging 36 factors on the hosts at Barclays.
Tatum embodied all that was proper concerning the bounce-back W. He notched a close to triple-double (36p/10a/9r) and had his fingerprints everywhere in the recreation.
Very like the entire video games that Boston performed within the final week, they as soon as once more began sluggish, however JT had their again. He poured in 13 first-quarter factors to assist the Cs hold tempo with the Nets early.
His well-rounded effort rubbed off on his Celtics teammates, who seemed way more targeted.
“It begins with them (Tatum and Jaylen Brown) taking duty, however taking duty so far as what must be executed on the ground…They understand how essential their two-way basketball is for our success,” head coach Joe Mazzulla defined.
After turning the ball over 20 occasions and permitting the Hawks as many offensive rebounds as potential, they tightened issues up and stored Wednesday’s mixed quantity to simply 10 in Brooklyn.
Mazzulla had pointed to the shot margins at Tuesday’s post-game presser, saying which you can’t win video games if you’re taking 25 much less makes an attempt than your opponent. His guys clearly listened and cleaned up their recreation, particularly Brown and Tatum.
“Yesterday, after the sport, I stated me and JT need to be higher. We had 11 turnovers,” stated Brown. “Tonight, we solely had one.”
Brown didn’t have essentially the most environment friendly scoring evening en path to his 24 factors, however he made his presence identified by hitting the glass arduous. His 12 boards (10 defensive) had been an enormous a part of why the Nets weren’t in a position to create second possibilities for themselves.
Boston’s two stars’ willingness to take accountability and lead by instance says so much about their character, in addition to the workforce’s.
Payton Pritchard, who poured in an environment friendly 23 factors at Barclays, would agree.
“We obtained humbled yesterday. We didn’t respect our opponent,” he instructed reporters (h/t CLNS Media) “We got here again right now and it confirmed the character of our workforce.”
There have been loads of seasons the place we’ve all seen the Celtics lose in a disappointing trend, as they did within the Cup opener, say they have to be higher, after which come out and shoot themselves within the foot once more.
Since Mazzulla has been in cost, extra particularly since he’s had a full offseason to organize for his duty as head coach, the Cs have been constant at studying from their classes.
He simply desires his guys to decide to the method of getting higher.
“Nothing’s mounted. But additionally, simply since you don’t play properly doesn’t imply it’s damaged. It’s only a course of day in and time out. You’ve obtained to decide to it, you’ve obtained to do it.”
