The Celtics’ star duo combined to only take seven second half shots, and even if Tatum was 3-for-4 to Brown’s dreary 0-for-3 over that stretch, neither was able to rescue the Celtics from the fury of Jimmy (45 points) Butler. Each Celtic only took one shot in the fourth – Tatum made his – and were generally unable to make the necessary difference.
In Game 6, as in Games 1 and 3 of this Eastern Conference Finals series, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown couldn’t avoid the crowd, and this time responded with 11 combined turnovers. The Celtics’ star duo combined to only take seven second-half shots, and even if Tatum was 3-for-4 to Brown’s dreary 0-for-3 over that stretch, neither was able to rescue the Celtics from the fury of a 45-point performance from Jimmy Butler. Each Celtic only took one shot in the fourth – Tatum made his – and were generally unable to make the necessary difference. Over the first half of the season, when performances like this one were more commonplace, it was called a lack of poise. And that issue keeps popping up at the most inconvenient times, now with Sunday’s Game 7 in Miami set to determine whether the Celtics make their first NBA Finals appearance in 12 years.
“A lot has to do with our starts and having to play catch up the whole game,” Ime Udoka said on Saturday of the poise problem. “We understood the situation Miami was in last night and didn’t play our best basketball in the first quarter defensively and offensively. Playing behind the eight ball most of the game. Although we got the lead late or tied it quite a few times, it felt like we were always in an uphill battle, shooting ourselves in the foot.
“We’d like to get off to better starts, put some pressure on the opponent when they’re in that situation, similar to what we did against Milwaukee in Game 7,” said the Celtics coach. “That’s our mindset coming in. Obviously going into (Miami) we want to start better. We have confidence in going down there winning, too, but we have to get ourselves off to better starts, get ourselves easy baskets and not give them life early in the game.
