On March 17, the Boston Celtics won their second straight game, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 126-112.
When speaking to the media following the game, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups spoke glowingly about the Celtics’ strength in depth and overall talent level, noting how they are clearly the better team.
“We played a team that’s, let’s face it, a team that’s better than us,” Billups said. “That’s one of the elite teams in the league. They’re better than we are. So, when you play against teams like that, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. Because you gotta play pretty much an outstanding game to have a shot.”
The Celtics ended their contest against Portland with 126 points, 52 rebounds, and 29 assists while shooting a collective 47.1% from the field and 35.7% from deep in a performance that was reminiscent of the dominant offensive team we saw earlier in the season.
Marcus Smart Sounds Off on Damian Lillard
While the Celtics were able to come away from their latest game with a victory, it’s worth noting that they once again gave up a fourth-quarter run to the opponent, which was led by the ever-impressive Damian Lillard.
During his own post-game press conference, Marcus Smart spoke about Lillard’s monster performance and credited his team’s ability to ride out Portland’s fightback.
“For us, it’s just moving on to the next play,” Smart said. “We got to have that short-term memory on both ends of the floor. I think a lot of times, we allow, because we didn’t make shots, [opponents’ made shots] to affect our defense. And then because our defense was lacking, we try to come and force another shot. Just having that short-term memory. If you’re open, shoot the ball. If you miss it, oh well, next play. You shoot it again, you get an open shot, you knock it down. And once we start thinking like that, I think that kind of took away a lot of the mishaps that we’ve been having. Those little walls where it just seems like we couldn’t score the ball nor get to stop. And like you said, Dame went off. We still were able to keep our poise and respond.”
Lillard ended the contest with 41 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds while shooting 52.2% from the field and 40% from deep in what was an All-Star-caliber night from the point guard.
Jaylen Brown Recently Told Celtics to Play Harder
When speaking to the media following the Celtics’ March 13 loss to the Houston Rockets, Jaylen Brown used his post-game press conference to encourage his teammates to play harder throughout games, noting how they need to win the marginal battles if they want to be successful.
“It’s just taking care of the little things”
Jaylen Brown talks about what the Celtics need to do to get back on track
“Taking care of the little things,” Brown said, “Execution. We lost tonight, not really on execution, but lack of effort, not doing our job, the hard stuff, the little stuff is what adds up. The offensive rebounds and loose balls, turnovers. We didn’t deserve to win today.”
The Celtics will be back in action on Saturday, March 18, when they face the Utah Jazz in what will be the second night of a back-to-back and their fifth game of a six-game road trip.
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Chauncey Billups Issues Strong Statement After Celtics Beat Trail Blazers