Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics find themselves in real trouble, as the Miami Heat won Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals to take a 2-0 lead in the series. But Tatum doesn’t seem to be too worried about the Celtics’ chances, as he said after the game that he is confident in Boston’s chances to come back in the series.
“It’s tough, it’s a challenge,” Tatum said about being down 2-0. ” It’s no point being up here sad and sh*t. They came in and won two games. They played well you give them credit. But we’re not dead or anything, we got a great opportunity. I still have the utmost confidence, everybody has the utmost confidence. We just got to get ready for Game 3.”
(Starts at 6:15 mark)
Tatum didn’t have a great performance in Game 2 against the Heat, despite scoring 34 points. He went particularly cold from beyond the arc, making just 3 of 10 three-pointers, and had 5 turnovers in the game. In fact, in both Games 1 and 2, Tatum didn’t make a single field goal in the fourth quarter, scoring exclusively from the free-throw line in consecutive fourth quarters. Jayson Tatum is currently averaging 32 points, 10 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in the series.
The last time the Celtics overcame a 0-2 deficit in the playoffs was in 2017 against the Chicago Bulls. Interestingly, the Bulls were being led by Jimmy Butler at the time. The Celtics lost their first two games but then came back to win four in a row. It’ll be interesting to see if history repeats itself.
Can The Celtics Come Back From Being Down 2-0?
Tatum and the Celtics haven’t had it easy this playoff run. Their series against the Hawks and the 76ers have proven that the Celtics can be successful, but tend to let games slip out of their hands. Both games against Miami are further proof of that and will be even more difficult to accept because Boston gave up their home-court advantage. Tatum even pointed to the Celtics’ mistakes on the defensive end in Game 1 as the reason they lost.
Jimmy Butler has been a man on a mission during this playoff run, averaging 31.1 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 5.6 APG, 2.2 SPG, and 0.8 BPG while shooting 51.1% in these playoffs. So any chance of victory against the Heat means stopping him. Brown and Tatum proved last year that they can be excellent defenders, and both players need to step up on the defensive end, perhaps with Brown accepting Butler as his defensive assignment. Tatum is scoring well, but he needs his teammates to play well along with him.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
