Boston – Before an elimination match in his first round series against Orlando Magic, the head coach of the Boston Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, did not want to talk about everything that a victory offered his sick team.
“Well, we have to win match 5,” he said.
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What they did, dominating Orlando in the second half of A 120-89 victory And win the series, 4-1.
Meanwhile, Next Round's opponent remains undecided, while the Strait Pistons have defeated the New York Knicks, Extend their series In a sixth game Thursday. Tuesday's results gave Celtics at least a few days of rest, and it is important, given the bruises they collected against magic.
“It's good and bad,” said Mazzulla, always counterattack, additional rest. “We are going to leave the arena for a few days.
They will need today. It was a series as physical as a series that there was through the NBA in a first round of physique. Jaylen Brown has been fighting against a right knee injury since mid-March. Jayson Tatum suffered an bone bruise on his shooting wrist of a fault in match 1. And Jrue Holiday missed a third consecutive match with a strain of the hamstrings, which Mazzulla described as a “daily” injury in the future.
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“It's great,” said Brown about additional rest. “When is we playing?” No one knew for sure. “Anyway, I will take advantage of it and be ready to go through anyone who is as follows.”
Go through them. This is how this first round series against magic felt. Despite an unbalanced result, Orlando gave the Celtics all that they could manage from the point of view of physics. Magic, whose defense was ranked second in the NBA in the regular season, kept the Celtics straight, rarely helping, still changing, presenting a ton of 1 games against 1. The match plan forced Boston to browse them.
That Tatum did, collecting 35 points (on 10 shots out of 16), 10 assists and eight rebounds in 34 minutes of work. He did the same in match 4, totaling 37 points, 14 rebounds and three assists. The assists were difficult to find throughout the series. Because magic stayed at home on Boston shooters, there were no easy points of sale for the 3 open. So, instead, Tatum and Brown did their work on an island and did it well.
It was another lesson learned for a team that has seen about six appearances in the conference final in the past eight years, including two trips to the final and the championship from last year.
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“You could say that,” said Brown. “I just look at each experience as an opportunity to learn, so it was an excellent learning experience for us, to go through a complete series of the playoffs, to have to be physical, to have to enter the trenches. This is one of the challenges that people would have said about us before the season:” Take the 3 -point shot, which played physical “. We will continue to build in our back pocket.
As the great man of the Celtics Al Horford said, if we know something about the Knicks and the Pistons, “these are both teams that play very hard.” If one or the other team hoped that the magic would provide a plan to win against the Celtics, too bad, because they believe, if something, this series was the one that made them stronger.
“I thought it was the theme of the series – physics in the trenches,” said Mazzulla. “Each series, each game has lessons, and you take these lessons if you have the chance to move on. There are a lot of things that we can learn from this series, and we will be ready for whom we play then.”
Tatum is more than ready. The challenges that magic has presented, he resolved them, as he plans to do to anyone will come after. The confidence in this comes from the experience of victory last season.
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“This season was the most relaxed and carefree that I was in my career, understanding that we won last year, we achieved the ultimate goal and we have somehow obtained this monkey,” said Tatum. “Obviously, the goal is always the same this year, to win and compete for a championship. I just enjoyed this season to play carefree basketball and not have suspension above my head. It was fun to do.
“It allows me to focus on the task to come. I do not worry to try to prove that someone is wrong or something like that. It is to understand that I know what I am capable of. I know what we are when we play in a certain way, and we have shown it, so it is to reach this level.”
It's true: this series was not the best of Celtics. They know who they are, and there is another level to reach. Maybe the Knicks or the Pistons will come out in the next round. They will probably need it against Cleveland riders in the Eastern Conference final. This could get ahead of ourselves, but they are the reigning champions, and they expect it from themselves.
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“I do not take anything for granted,” said Brown, who, with Tuesday's victory, equaled the 17 victories of the Legend of the Celtics Tommy Heinsohn. “It is my ninth season and my eighth eliminatory session, so I do not take anything for granted. The playoffs.
But first of all a well -deserved rest.
