Celtics faith never wavered after Game 2 loss to Miami: ‘I trust our guys’

On Saturday evening in Miami, the Celtics had the highly-anticipated opportunity to respond to a Heat team that stole one on the road. For three days, the national discourse centered around Boston’s stunning defeat — in which a Jimmy Butler-less Heat team broke a franchise record for most three-pointers in a postseason game.

And boy, did the Celtics respond, holding Miami to 12 first-quarter points and just 39 in the first half. They maintained a double-digit lead from the first quarter on, despite shooting just 29.7% from beyond the arc.

The final 104-84 score reflected a bounce-back game for the ages. It provided relief for the fans who spent 72 hours festering in how the Celtics were just never going to win a championship, while (temporarily) halting the media discourse that Boston was just not cut out for meaningful playoff success.

But, despite the noise, the faith in the locker room didn’t waver after one tough loss.

“That’s the playoffs — sometimes, things happen and you can’t get too high, can’t get too low,” Derrick White said at shootaround the morning of Game 3. “We’ve just been trying to bounce back quick, and make the adjustments we need to make. All year long, we’ve been doing that.”

Jayson Tatum echoed that sentiment: “You never want to lose, especially in the playoffs. But nobody was down, right? It’s a long series. We were confident that we could come down here and play better, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Yes, there was a concerted effort to close out better on three-point shooters and improve offensive spacing. But ultimately, the same Celtic team that dropped one at home in Game 2 dominated in Miami, in large part because they played harder, paid better attention to detail, and didn’t overreact.

“On any given night, teams can come out and hit a plethora of shots,” Jaylen Brown said after the win. “They had a record-breaking night the other day. But we don’t panic. We watched the film, broke it down, saw where we could make some improvements – and we come out and we executed.”

“We don’t panic” was a common theme expressed by players after Game 2. Kristaps Porzingis reiterated it multiple times at practice on Thursday and Jrue Holiday said the same immediately after the loss.

“We could have had some better closeouts in Game 2,” Tatum said matter-of-factly after the win. “We kind of gave them some walk-up threes and things like that – just better at contesting. It was kind of an effort thing.”

Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images

The increased effort was visible in Game 3, exemplified by the full-court fourth quarter press, Derrick White following up a Jaylen Brown missed free throw by crashing all the way from half-court, or Payton Pritchard’s tenacity on the glass. None of those plays highlighted major schematic changes, but all reflected a greater level of intensity.

“Sometimes, when you have a lot of time off, you can easily start to come up with all these things,” Mazzulla said. “At the end of the day, the game is pretty simple. You gotta find the simple things that you can execute, the simple things you can take away. And then how do you just bring the right mindset and physicality?”

It didn’t help that the Celtics had two days off in between games. Kristaps Porzingis, who went 1 for 9 on Wednesday night, reflected on how much the waiting game for a bounce-back opportunity hurt. He put up 18 points on 5-9 shooting on Saturday, a much more effective performance, and didn’t turn the ball over once.

“Oh, man, it was a long two days, you know?” Porzingis told reporters, via CLNS Media. “Just the way it burns inside after a game like that, a loss like that. I mean, probably having my worst game as a Celtic, it really burned inside, I’m not going to lie.”

It’s only one win. The Celtics need 14 more to hang Banner 18, and there will undoubtedly be more losses on the way to the final prize. Sports talk radio, and the NBA on TNT crew, can lose its faith in the Celtics after each loss – it’s what they do. After every Celtics loss, the dominant discourse will be hysterical.

But Joe Mazzulla and his group won’t lose faith in the belief they can accomplish the ultimate goal after one poor showing. On Saturday, they showed what they’ve done all year — that after a letdown loss, they respond.

“I trust our team. I don’t expect them to play perfect, and I don’t expect the series to be easy, or to go a certain way,” Mazzulla said. “But I trust them. And I know they want to win, and I know they’ll do whatever it takes.”