Joe Mazzulla on Celtics loss to Heat: Just the nature of the playoffs

The Boston Celtics established their dominance from their post-season opener but couldn’t defend their 1-0 lead for long as the Miami Heat fought back in the following game to even the scores. Some believed that the Heat would suffer when facing the Eastern table toppers, however, by turning the tables, they showed their zeal to continue in the tournament. While the loss might come as a blow to the Celtics fans, their head coach, Joe Mazzulla, has a different opinion.

Following their 111-101 loss, the HC told the reporters, “It’s unfortunate that losing a game is adversity. It’s just the nature of the playoffs. To think that you’re not going to have ups and downs throughout a run, you’re not being realistic.”

Mazzulla has set realistic expectations; he knows there will be wins and losses both because of the competitive nature of the tournament and he was well prepared for that.

Sharing the next moves that the Celtics will take for Game 3, Mazzulla said, “We just have to go back and look at what we did well and what we didn’t and figure out the areas that we can improve on.”

In Game 1, the Celtics had attempted 49 3-pointers on Miami out of which 22 hit the target while Miami shot 12 out of 37 attempts and finished the game with a 94-114. However, on Wednesday’s game, the Heat bombarded the Celtics with 23-of-43 threes even without their star Jimmy Butler while the Celtics lagged behind with 12-of-32.

The Miami franchise scored 62% of their points from behind the 3-point arc and gave the Cs a dose of their own medicine. Acknowledging the loss, the franchise’s ace Jayson Tatum also echoed the coach’s mindset after the game.

Jayson Tatum reflects on Celtics loss to Heat

During the post-game press conference, when Jayson Tatum was asked to share his input, the forward said, “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. There’s a lot of history between these two franchises, especially recently.” He further stated that the playoff games do not always end as per people’s prediction.

The 5-time All-Star concluded by saying that they have an opportunity to redeem themselves on Saturday when the Celtics will visit Miami’s home court.

Although the Heat were the superior side in terms of scoring in Game 2, Tatum put up a good show alongside Jalen Brown. The former contributed 28 points while Brown scored 33 points, and both grabbed 8 rebounds each. Despite their well-run partnership, they had to give in to the Heat’s firepower.