BOSTON — A procession of Celtics staffers approached Jayson Tatum at his locker after they lost a second straight game to open the Eastern Conference Finals against the No. eight-seeded Miami Heat.
“We have to win both games in Miami. That is the job.”
“Crazier stories have been written.”
Tatum faced the task of winning four of five games in the series long after his teammates had recouped Friday’s 111-105 loss to the Heat and finally emerged from the dressing room 80 minutes after the final buzzer.
“It’s a challenge,” said Tatum, who increased his shot counts to 0-of-3 from the field in the fourth quarter in two games. “There’s no point in being sad and shitty up here, is there? They came in and won two games. You played well. You appreciate them, but we’re not dead or anything. We have a great chance. I still have the most confidence in myself. Everyone has the most confidence and we just need to prepare for Game 3.”
The next ball is Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT) in Miami.
Blame abounds for Friday’s loss: the stubbornness of first-year Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who hotly pursues veteran Heat colleague Erik Spoelstra and publicly insists his every move is right, adjustments in the game be required damned; His players’ failure to acknowledge every possession each year was erased by the same mistake that cost them a championship. Grant Williams challenges Jimmy Butler of all people when the Heat’s badass superstar doesn’t need another reason to rip the heart out of an entire town.
But one factor leading to another double-digit lead being squandered surpasses all others.
“It’s a set of discipline and mindset,” Mazzulla said, “so it’s a mental issue of who can make the right plays at the right time, who can make the easy plays, who can win those details and margins.”
“So, yeah, it’s definitely mental.”
Eventually you are who you are, and the Celtics have given away playoff games repeatedly, starting with last year’s Conference Finals against the Heat. Miami is just as confident in their ability to succeed in tight games as they are in Boston’s penchant for late-game mistakes.
Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler exchanges words with Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden on Friday. (Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
Mazzulla has stuck to what the game plan tells him, not what the game tells him to do. The most recent example was Al Horford in place of Robert Williams III for the last game at 7:41 as the 36-year-old increased his deficit to 5 from 29 from 3 points (17.2%) in the last six games and avoiding attempts that might have made it worse. He was shaken and Williams was the more active and effective player throughout the night.
Have the Celtics considered riding him instead? “No,” Mazzulla said. “Al finished every game he played.”
When it came down to it, with a minute left and the Heat three up, Boston’s 89-77 lead long since wiped out, Bam Adebayo outplayed Horford with an offensive rebound and an undisputed dunk that took Miami’s lead to two possessions for the first time since increased the opening minutes of the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Spoelstra stunned Jaylen Brown (16 points in 7-for-23 shooting) with a series of attacks the Celtics were unprepared for, including a zone defense they’d seen from the Heat countless times before.
“We just didn’t figure out how to capitalize on it every time on the field,” said Brown, who now has 2:13 from range in the series. “We have to recognize certain situations. That’s their due.”
Two nights after Tatum and Brown shared five rallies in the fourth quarter, they added another three rallies in Friday’s final frame and nearly gave the Heat several more rallies. Brown held onto a 98-94 lead within five minutes and traveled. In a 100-100 draw, Marcus Smart just dropped the ball. Tatum ran out of control against Butler a few plays later, and the Heat converted all three mistakes by Boston’s best players.
Miami has 70 points in two games with the Celtics 18 offensive rebounds and 30 turnovers. Seventy.
“We’ve got to come together, man,” said Rob Williams, who scored seven of his 13 points in the fourth quarter but only had three rebounds in 23 minutes. “Time is running out. We don’t have time for these goofs.”
Then came Grant Williams, who took over Payton Pritchard’s minutes in Game 2 – a late adjustment almost everyone had called for in the second half of Game 1. He was playing well until he provoked Butler after his only 3-point shot of the night gave the win. The Celtics lead 98-87 with 6:37 to go. Butler responded by putting Williams in the box, scoring over him from two yards out and committing a foul. Before executing his free throw, Butler went neck and neck with Williams, and the unlikely pair earned double technical points.
On Miami’s next possession, Butler scored again over Williams, this time from five feet.
With play slipping away from the Celtics, Williams took on the task of reacting, forcing an ill-considered and flawed shot over the taller Adebayo. Butler targeted Williams on the next two possessions, completing two more pull-up jumps and turning a two-point deficit into a 102-100 lead for Miami.
Butler soon left the court tell the national television audience“They thought he was the answer. Come on. This is your answer to the Jimmy Butler problem? Is that your answer? Come on. That can’t be the answer.”
Whether Butler would have bullied the Celtics regardless of the trash talk is debatable, but all the hubbub was emblematic of Boston’s inferiority mentality. The Celtics act like they won when the job isn’t done. The Heat understand if they never stop tugging, Boston will let go of the rope. The Celtics built a double-digit lead in the second, third and fourth quarters, which they immediately regained on each occasion.
“We need to improve our performance,” Tatum said. “We had double digit leads in both games and a turnover changed the momentum or offensive rebounds led to a 3 and changed the momentum. Those plays, if we’re 12 ahead and could go 15 up, they go on an 8-0 run and it’s down to four now. Now the dynamic has changed.
Easier said than done. Not only do the Celtics need to win four of their next five games, they might need to win all of them, because when the score is close we’ve seen the script too many times. Boston may be the more talented team, but the Heat are under more pressure mentally and physically.
“We just have to come out and fight. Play basketball,” Brown said, seemingly trying to convince himself that the Celtics can rewrite the endgame for 93% of 2-0 deficits. “Both games they could come out as winners, but who says we can’t come out as winners in the next two games? We just have to prepare to play basketball. You can’t do that.” I’m losing confidence. It’s the first through fourth. Should make for a better story.”