Another series, another 1-1 tie after two games. The Boston Celtics dropped Game 2 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night by a score of 118-94. It was a brutal night filled with poor defense and ugly offense.
Here are three things you might have missed.
1. Derrick White defense
Perhaps one of the only good defensive plays of the night, watching Derrick White lock up Caris LeVert was beautiful. White’s footwork and anticipation on this play were immaculate, and him hyping up the crowd afterward was the cherry on top.
2. Jayson Tatum’s confidence
Fans get mad after losses. Radio shows freak out. It’s the name of the game.
That doesn’t mean the Celtics have to feed into it.
Joe Mazzulla has preached the same mentality all year—a business-like, onto-the-next approach. Boston has acted the same after victories and defeats.
So, when Jayson Tatum took to the podium and smirked at the notion of perfection being the standard, it was unsurprising.
“Just get ready for Saturday. Nobody was in there defeated, deflated,” Tatum said of the vibe post-game. “I mean, never want to lose, especially in the playoffs. Lot of things we can learn from. World thinks we’re never supposed to lose, and we’re supposed to win every game by 25. And it’s just not gonna be like that all the time. We don’t expect it to be easy.
“This a good team we playing, it’s the second round of the playoffs. It’s gonna be fun, the rest of the series, especially come Saturday. But, you know, we bounced back plenty of times. We lost what, 16 games this year. So I’d like to think that we responded pretty well every time we did lose.”
3. TD Garden lets the Celtics hear it
Perfection may not be attainable, but the way Boston performed on Thursday night was worthy of the boos TD Garden rained down. Fans were leaving early in the fourth quarter as Donovan Mitchell drained tough three after tough three.
It’s never fun to hear a home crowd boo their team. But it wasn’t unjustified.
