INDIANAPOLIS — There was no bottle of champagne in sight for this eyewitness account. The gray folding table centering Boston’s visitors’ locker room inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse was covered in beer cans and puddles of hazy IPA. The Celtics are waiting to uncork those bubbly bottles after the next round, if they win the real crown, an 18th banner in franchise history after Boston swept Indiana with a 105-102 victory in Game 4 on Monday evening.
“We understand what we have to do, we commit and do whatever it takes to get four more wins,” Derrick White said, after the Celtics do-it-all guard splashed the game-winning triple with 45 seconds left. to play.
That didn’t stop staffers and players from posing with the Eastern Conference Finals trophy, named in honor of Celtics great Bob Cousy. They belted out Drake’s lyrics oozing out of a massive JBL speaker. Sam Hauser, Boston’s reserve sharpshooter, used a pair of scissors to cut a hole in the bottom of a beer and joined an equipment manager in shooting the can. And then another. Kristaps Porziņģis, injured in his calf since the first round, calmly poured a Corona into a white paper cup. Luke Kornet, who sprained his left wrist in the second game, caught a Kona Big Wave before exiting.
Even with those 14-footers lacking frontcourt firepower, Boston handled two crucial contests at Indiana with exemplary execution when every little element counts the most. These players and staff certainly believe this is an evolved team from the one that reached the Finals two years ago, winning a 2-1 advantage over Golden State before the Warriors flip the script and Stephen Curry wins his fourth ring. Porziņģis should be ready for Boston’s likely game against Dallas in over a week, on June 6. Jrue Holiday proved he was worth every piece of the large package Boston traded to Portland for his veteran services.
Yet the difference, Boston seems to believe, isn’t just in who wears the classic Celtics green. “I think we applied everything we learned,” Jayson Tatum said.
“Time has passed,” Jaylen Brown said. “The experience has been acquired. And I think we’re ready to do our best.
After leading by as many as 18 points midway through the third quarter of Game 3, Boston closed out the game with a 13-2 run and a monstrous back-and-forth team effort. On Monday, the Celtics held Indiana to just 19 points in the fourth quarter, and the Pacers remained scoreless in the final 3:33 of Game 4. Derrick White attributed Boston’s stability through those crucial possessions to careful habits that head coach Joe Mazzulla has ingrained. during every training session at the Red Auerbach Center.
“It starts in practice,” White said, “the ‘championship stations’ that Joe loves to do.”
Mazzulla runs different drills at each basket around the floor right next to the Mass Pike. Sometimes they focus on details as mundane as throwing the ball into play. Other times, a boxing exercise right out of school twice a day. “I just try to pick out the little things that we see every night that can impact winning and losing,” Mazzulla said. “And we practice them over and over again until they become second nature.”
“It’s the little things we talk about that can help you win a championship,” Tatum said.
Perhaps that’s part of what Brad Stevens, now Boston’s president of basketball operations, saw in Mazzulla when Stevens named the 35-year-old interim head coach of that decorated franchise just before the start of the 2022-23 season, following Ime Udoka’s suspension, sending Boston’s follow-up campaign after this latest Finals appearance into uncharted waters.
When Stevens was just 36 and left Butler to join the Celtics sideline, he won over players with scrupulous attention to detail, drilling them on specific end-of-game situations and putting every guy in the five positions of each action, so that they are always prepared. for all angles and possibilities. When Boston returned for its first practice after earning the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference this regular season, Mazzulla took his roster through what he called a “playoff training camp.” ”, a morning that Al Horford called tougher than anything the Celtics endured during. the preseason, the coach barking the players through challenges like playing all over the court for three minutes without dribbling.
They still have eight days to prepare for this next phase, leaving the arena around midnight for their charter back to Boston. Brown’s bags weigh a little more, thanks to his Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy – named after Celtics great Larry Bird.
“I think I’m one of the best wingers and guards in this game. I thought this year I had taken a level, and I increased it. I took the game, I picked up guys all over the court, I chased guys off screens, I fought against the bigs and I feel like I should have been All- Defense,” Brown said.
His block on Andrew Nembhard with 1:05 left was only surpassed by his driving dish on the next possession, drawing a crowd into the paint, before the All-Star fired the assist to White in the right corner.
“I like to put my hat on just being a versatile two-way winger and I can do both at any time,” Brown said, “and the last four minutes of that game, you got it seen.”
He scored 10 in the final frame, finishing with a team-high 29 points. Tatum added 26 more points, 13 rebounds and eight assists, earning four of the other nine media votes for MVP honors. These two stars went from boys to men, and from hopefuls to playoff performers, by leaps and bounds. Now more than ever, they seem ready to finally cross that finish line together.
News Source : sports.yahoo.com
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