Celtics not celebrating heading into NBA Finals Game 4 – Boston Herald
After Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown embraced at the middle of the floor Wednesday night following their win in Game 3, Tatum revealed a few words the two stars shared.
Three stood out: “We can’t relax.”
The Celtics are aware no NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 series deficit in the playoffs, but they also felt coach Joe Mazzulla’s pregame message come to life in the fourth quarter Wednesday. Mazzulla stressed that in the moments a team feels closest to victory, the closest it actually is to losing its grip.
Mazzulla reiterated that stance post-game, saying, in so many words, that Boston can’t relax.
“You’ve gotta understand, we’re just as vulnerable — if not more vulnerable — than they are,” Mazzulla said Wednesday. “We have to play that way, and as long as we have that mindset — when you understand you’re vulnerable and your back is against the wall, you’ve gotta fight.”
Tatum said the Celtics have improved in that area, speaking before Thursday’s practice.
“I think from our experiences over the past couple of years, the thing that we’ve really gotten a lot better at is not relaxing, not being complacent. From game to game or series to series, we always want more. Maybe in recent years we took things for granted at some points or were happy to make it to certain rounds, where (now) we’re not satisfied. Even now up 3-0, nobody is celebrating or anything. We still feel like there’s a lot more that we can do. There’s a lot more that we want to do.
