Six lessons from Jayson Tatum and the Celtics in their Finals rematch with the Warriors:
"We never wanted to lose and we played well and losing this game was hard, especially in the way we played," Tatum said.
The result is:
1. When the Warriors announced that Andrew Wiggins would not be playing on Saturday, a big game from Jason Tatum looked promising.
Instead, the Celtics MVP candidate had arguably the worst performance of the season. He shot just 6 of 21 from the field, including 2 of 9 from behind the arc and 4 of 7 from the free throw line.
Tatum's first game was Harbinger. A good rim shot could have easily lapped it. But Clay Thompson appeared out of nowhere and slammed him against the window. A minute later, Tatum tried to go head-to-head with Kevon Rooney, who fired an awkward shot that conceded a point.
Tatum never recovered. He missed seven 3-pointers and two free throws in the fourth quarter that would cut the lead to six from the finish line with 5:02 left. The Celtics' regular rotation held just two more points as the Warriors took a 14-2 lead.
"Man, I missed a lot of downtimes," Tatum told reporters. “I committed two fouls early in the first quarter. Missed a few triplets. They're a good team. Obviously, we have some history with them. They have been playing better lately and both sides are well-balanced and talented teams. They make your life difficult.
Perhaps Tatum missed a few early layups and failed to get back into a rhythm. But Saturday's game resurrected some of the ghosts Celtics fans had hoped would be dispelled from the air.
2. Protecting Stephen Curry is like trying to slow a flood, but the Celtics could have built a better dam. He hit his first three-pointer with two minutes left in the first quarter when the Celtics missed him in the conversion. The second was backing 30 feet over Sam Houser when the 1/4 buzzer sounded.
“My touch seems to be disabled. The many simple moments I missed made this evening difficult.”
Curry used the Celtics' pick-and-roll defense. He ran around the Looney screen, got himself in his place as quickly as possible, and crashed Malcolm Brockton to see the Warriors win by 4 points. Just before halftime, the Celtics' pick-and-roll defense collapsed again against Curry. In the third start, Smart got stuck on Looney's screen, forcing Curry to bury another and go underwater. Finally, he caught Jaylen Brown on PNR and essentially closed the game in the bottom of the 4th inning.
Curry finished with 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting and Klay Thompson scored a career-high 34 points. Jordan Poole started in place of Wiggins and lost 20 points. This is hard math for opponents.
3. Jaylen Brown usually plays well against the Warriors and Saturday was no exception. He scored 31 points on 13 of 23 shooting and tied Malcolm Brogdon (16 points, 6 of
23) to survive them in the first half. -10 rounds). The Warriors couldn't do much to hold Brown down from mid-range or from the rim, but his mid-range offense
made up for the Celtics' 3-pointers they
missed (12 of 40, 30 percent). The Celtics' offensive pace has been heavily hampered by the Warriors' defense and a few of Saturday's 3-point attempts were preceded by the usual offensive
energy and lightning.
4. The Celtics again do not have Al Horford (Health and Safety Protocol) and Robert Williams has not debuted. As a result, the Warriors recovered from 25 percent of their mistakes and had their highest-scoring night of the season.
The Warriors also beat the Celtics 19-11 in the transition period and particularly punished them with live rebounds. That said, the Celtics lost Saturday's game on offense and on the field (offensive rebounds and turnovers).
5. Grant Williams was removed from Saturday's game for hitting a basketball in the stands during the final two minutes of play. The Warriors just took a 17-point lead and called a timeout to switch starters. The Warriors player fired after the whistle ricocheted toward Williams. He beat him dejectedly, but not very enthusiastically.
Unfortunately for Williams, hitting the ball from the stands was an automatic release and Scott Foster immediately
dropped the ball.
"I didn't know that," Williams told Foster.
6. The Celtics' win in December wouldn't have eased the pain of a Finals loss. The regular season is very long and the Celtics are hoping to have a very long playoff winning streak as well.
Of course, the players would be forgiven if Saturday's game meant a little more than, say, next week's Friday duel against the Magic. But the Celtics have been very clear about their ultimate goal this season: winning. It's a different (and perhaps healthier) mindset than the feeling of needing to avenge a loss to last year's opponent.
Also, don't expect players to admit that losing means more than one game.
"Tonight probably meant more to you guys than it did to us," Tatum said. “It was one game. We want to win every game we play, but it's difficult. We never wanted to lose, we played well, and losing this time was hard - especially with the way we play. But that's not going to define our season.
“How we respond matters. If we come here and win
it all depends on how we react on Monday and that's true. It's over and now we're going to Los Angeles to play against the Clippers. The Celtics play the Clippers at 10:30 p.m. Eastern
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