“Homecoming,” inaasahang magpapalakas sa performance ng Celtics para sa NBA Finals
Umaasa ang Boston Celtics na ang kanilang “homecoming” ay muling magpapasigla sa kanilang NBA Finals performance.
Tabla sa 1-1 ang Celtics at Golden State Warriors sa kanilang best-of-seven championship series, na ang game three ay gaganapin bukas, Miyerkoles sa Boston Garden.
Matapos ang epic fourth-quarter rally na nagdala sa Boston sa 1st game victory, sinamantala ng Warriors ang 33 points mula sa 19 turnovers at isang malaking third quarter para sa 107-88 victory sa game two noong Linggo.
Ayon kay Celtics coach Ime Udoka . . . “Didn’t give ourselves a chance with a lot of those turnovers. We weren’t strong with the ball. For us that was a little disappointing.”
Sinabi naman ni Jaylen Brown ng Celtics . . . “We’ve got to come out and play our best version of basketball. We can’t let stuff that’s happened in the past affect our mindset going forward. We’ve just got to come out and do a better job taking care of the basketball.”
Kailangang iwasan ng Celtics na mahulog sa “deep holes” sa ikatlong quarter gaya rin ng nangyari sa unang dalawang laro nila sa San Francisco.
Ayon pa kay Brown . . . “We’ve got to come ready to play, come ready to meet that physicality on both ends. We’re not a perfect team, but we’ll figure it out going forward. We’ve just got to play for 48 minutes. We know the Warriors are a third-quarter team. We talked about it. They still came out and were able to go on a run. We’ve just got to be able to answer.”
Binigyang-diin naman ng Boston forward na si Jayson Tatum na dapat nilang bawasan ang turnovers.
Aniya . . . “They got a lot of points off our turnovers. That’s something we’ve got to be better for next game. Throughout the playoffs, the games we have high turnovers result in a loss. That’s definitely a point of emphasis. We’re a really good team when we take care of the ball. But we have those lapses where — snowball effect — we pile on turnovers and dig ourselves into a hole.”
Sinabi ni Tatum, na ang intensity ng road games ay nakatulong sa Celtics na makapaglaro ng mas mahusay, nguni’t dapat ay maging ganito rin ang “urgency” sa kanilang paglalaro sa Garden.
Dagdag pa niya . . . “Just playing with a sense of urgency. Human nature plays a part when you go on the road. It’s a tough environment. We’ve relaxed at home. (Now it’s) just having that sense of urgency, knowing that we’re at home, but that we need to play better at home.”
Sinabi naman ni Derrick White na naging “frustrated” ang Celtics makaraan ang dalawang “poor”third quarter performances laban sa Warriors.
Aniya . . . “It’s definitely frustrating. It’s easy to talk about, but we’ve got to go out there and change something. We’ve just got to learn from these mistakes that we made and grow from them.”
Nangako rin ang Celtics center na si Al Horford ng isang mas magandang performance sa game three.
Sinabi ni Hortford . . . “I felt like we missed a lot of easy ones around the basket. I have to be better in that area and I will be next game. I’ll look at the film. I’ll learn from it. For us to be in a better chance of winning, we have to cut down those turnovers.”
Ayon kay Horford, kailangan ng Celtics ng isang mental change para mag-improve sa third quarter.
Aniya . . . “It’s a mindset. It’s something we have to fix. Coach has talked about it. We need to find ways to be better. Look at that film and be better, and I think we can. On to Game 3. I can’t wait to get to the Garden. I know it’s going to be rocking on Wednesday.”
