BOSTON – A double-digit Game 1 win followed by a double-digit Game 2 defeat.
The Boston Celtics have been here before, and they know how to respond.
The vibe after Thursday night’s 118-94 Game 2 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers felt similar to that of two weeks ago when the C’s dropped the second game of their first-round matchup to the Miami Heat. Although this is a new series against a different team, Boston’s mindset heading into Game 3 will be the same as before: to channel the frustration of their loss into motivation for a bounce-back performance. And they're hoping for the same Game 3 result as before.
Such frustration was evident when Jaylen Brown took the podium and picked apart the team’s abnormally poor shooting and defensive performances. In the series-tying loss, Boston shot just 22.9 percent from 3-point range, nearly 16 percentage points lower than their postseason average, while on the other end allowing the opposition to score almost 16 points more than their postseason average.
“Obviously we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight, but defensively it was an unacceptable performance, and I think that’s where I’m the most upset,” Brown said. “Defensively we gave up 118 points, and on top of that, we lost the rebound battle. So we didn’t help ourselves tonight.”
Brown went on to explain that there is only one way to counter a loss like this.
“You take it on the chin, you learn from it, and you come out and put your best foot forward for the next game," he said. "We need to be ready to respond.”
The Celtics have responded to almost every loss throughout the season, including their 104-84 bounce-back win over Miami in Game 3 of Round 1.
While they felt frustrated following their latest loss, they certainly did not feel demoralized.
“Nobody in there was defeated or deflated,” Jayson Tatum described of the scene inside the Celtics’ locker room. “I mean, you never want to lose, especially in the playoffs … But the world thinks we’re never supposed to lose; we’re supposed to win every game by 25. And it’s just not going to be like that all the time. So we don’t expect it to be easy. It’s a good team we’re playing in the second round of the playoffs. It’s going to be fun, the rest of this series, especially come Saturday. We’ve bounced back plenty of times. We lost what, 18 games this year? So I’d like to think that we responded pretty well the few times that we did lose.”
Part of the reason the Celtics have responded so well following their losses lies in their head coach’s philosophy of taking an even-keeled approach regardless of the result.
“You treat it the same way you would a win,” Joe Mazzulla said fresh off of the defeat. “You come in tomorrow, you watch film, and you get better for Game 3.”
Added the veteran Al Horford, “That's what we did the last time, and we have to understand we're going into Saturday into a hostile place. It's going to be a battle. We just have to make sure we're at our best. I'm confident that we'll be ready to go."