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Tuesday night, the Boston Celtics will look to stave off postseason elimination and capture the first win of their Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the surging Miami Heat.
Heading into Game 4, Jaylen Brown issued a warning to the Heat not to allow his team to pull out a win, for he feels that could be the spark they need to make this a competitive series again.
“Don’t let us win tonight,” Jaylen Brown said. “You let us get one we feel confident. So, we’re going to come out, play free, play ready and it should be fine.”
Brown would continue on with his pre-game media session by stating that the Celtics “definitely need to leave it all out there, definitely gotta come with that fighting mentality, and definitely can’t have any regrets on the court.”
Throughout the history of the NBA, there have been 110 teams to find themselves in a 0-3 hole in the postseason. None have managed to come away victorious.
In Game 4, the Boston Celtics look to embark on their journey to be the first ones to accomplish such a feat and Jaylen Brown feels all they need is a win on Tuesday night to get the ball rolling.
Veteran Scout Believes Joe Mazzulla Takes Too Much Blame
There has been a tremendous amount of blame that’s been directed toward Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla for the club’s postseason struggles and, particularly, their current deficit in the conference finals.
Though he has certainly been willing to take on these criticisms head-first, a veteran scout recently told Heavy Sports that he feels the rookie headman is far from the main factor in the team’s lackluster production to this point.
“Joe seems to be taking most of the abuse, and I’m not saying he doesn’t have things that he could be better at, but these patterns have happened with Brad Stevens and Ime Udoka, as well,” the scout said. “Same types of issues down the stretch of games — sharing the ball, ball movement, just dribbling out the clock, lot of isolation basketball, defensive lapses. All these things have existed for years. The difference between this year and last year is that last year these things didn’t catch up with them fully until The Finals. This year it’s happening a series earlier.”
The scout would also mention that All-NBA stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown “still have room to grow” and that “having three coaches in three years doesn’t help” with improving their games.
Al Horford Takes Responsibility for Celtics Game 3 Loss
As noted, Joe Mazzulla has been quick to accept the blame for Boston’s shortcomings during this year’s postseason.
However, after saying Sunday’s Game 3 loss was “on me,” veteran big man Al Horford came to the defense of his head coach by suggesting that, at the end of the day, the fault should fall on the players.
“Coach is saying that, he’s being generous but at the end of the day [responsibility] falls on each player. We know what we have to do. We knew the magnitude of this game and, as a player, I take responsibility because we didn’t have what we needed to have so that’s what that is,” Al Horford said.
Al Horford would go on to note that while they are “rightfully so being counted out” of this series moving forward, ultimately, he made it clear that the Celtics must understand they still have a chance, saying “We’re not out yet.”
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