Final Might, after one of many worst losses of his basketball profession, Jaylen Brown sat on the podium in disappointment.
“We failed. I failed. We let the entire metropolis down,” Brown stated minutes after the Celtics fell to the Warmth in Sport 7 of the Japanese Convention Finals.
In that season-ending loss, Brown struggled mightily, ending the night time with a career-high 8 turnovers, and capturing simply 8-23 from the sector.
Now, eleven months later, Brown and the Celtics get an opportunity at revenge. Tomorrow at 1pm, the Celtics and Warmth will face off as soon as once more — their fourth postseason match-up in 5 years. Within the 2021 bubble, the Warmth emerged victorious after six video games, whereas in 2022, the Celtics got here out on prime in a good Sport 7 en path to a Finals look.
Final spring, after Derrick White’s Sport 6 buzzer-beater, it regarded just like the Celtics may develop into the primary NBA staff to ever come again and win a sequence after trailing 0-3. Then, Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle a minute into Sport 7, Rob Williams battled sickness, and the remainder of the staff couldn’t discover any rhythm. The Celtics bought blown out, 103-84, in entrance of a devastated crowd that needed to watch an opposing staff hoist a trophy on the TD Backyard ground for the second consecutive season.
Whereas redemption is actually on the Celtics’ minds, each Jaylen Brown and Joe Mazzulla informed reporters at follow on Saturday that they’re trying to go away final 12 months up to now.
“You don’t overlook, however you do your finest to dwell within the second,” Brown stated. “You study from these experiences, and you may’t deliver these ideas into it. You bought a brand new staff, you bought new gamers — I’m a brand new participant. So, simply, you come and also you keep within the second, and you are taking it sooner or later at a time.”
The Celtics and the Warmth have had considerably totally different seasons thus far. The Celtics boasted a league-best 64-18 report, whereas Miami was one play-in loss away from lacking the postseason altogether after ending the 12 months 46-36. Nonetheless, Mazzulla careworn that the staff’s respective information have been irrelevant, as have been the outcomes of earlier playoff matchups.
“Proper now, everyone seems to be 0-0,” Mazzulla stated. “In my thoughts, the seeding doesn’t matter. The common season doesn’t matter. What issues is simply how we strategy [things]. It began with how we practiced this week – all we will management is the time that we have now. The blokes have finished an important job simply honing in on all the main points, the execution, on either side of the ball. However, each groups are 0-0.”
Heading into the primary spherical of the playoffs, Joe Mazzulla stated he likes the id the Celtics have established this 12 months – one rooted in open-mindedness and adaptability – as a result of he is aware of that as a lot as tactical plans will be made prematurely, it’s onerous to foretell what changes this match-up would require.
“What issues is specializing in the current – who we’re as a staff, what we’ve labored on,” Mazzulla stated. “Each sequence, each playoff, each staff, season, takes on a lifetime of its personal, an id of its personal. We spent the 12 months establishing that id, and I feel it’s essential to proceed that by way of the playoffs, understanding that each sequence goes to be somewhat bit totally different.”
The Celtics have had a large lead within the standings all season. They’ve been prepared for postseason play to start for weeks now. However that doesn’t imply something on this playoff run will come simple.
“They’re prepared. However that doesn’t imply that issues are going to go our means,” Mazzulla stated. “They’ve been prepared all week. They’ve been prepared all 12 months. It doesn’t imply we’re going to get off to a superb begin, it doesn’t imply we’re not going to get off to a superb begin.”
Mazzulla famous it’s essential that the Celtics enter the postseason with confidence, but in addition with the understanding that they’re not invincible.
“Steadiness is an important factor — understanding that we’re a very, actually good staff, however [having] the humility to know that if we don’t care for X, Y, and Z, if we don’t care for the margins, we will lose at any time,” Mazzulla stated.
Kristaps Porzingis stated he can’t look forward to tomorrow’s playoff opener. Whereas he wasn’t on the roster for the earlier Warmth-Celtics matchups, he understands the historical past between the 2 groups and is aware of what’s to come back.
“Now we have to count on them to be ultra-aggressive, extremely handsy, attempting to do all of the little soiled issues they will — not soiled issues, however like, to mess up the sport somewhat bit, to get some benefits,” Porzingis stated. “Now we have to be prepared for that. It’s gonna be a warfare.”
