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Tim BontempESPN
After the Boston Celtics Star Jayson Tatum With a rough NBA Finals, Brad Stevens sent a brief message to his team’s franchise players.
Stevens, president of Boston’s basketball business, said with a smile on a video conference call with reporters after the Boston season lost to the Golden State Warriors in six league championship rounds. “Please rest a little.
“This guy gave us everything he had. When you look at the minutes, when you look at the game you played … I said this many times: he A superstar who doesn’t want to sit down. He wants to play, he wants to play all the time. In the finals, obviously he first said he wanted to get some of that moment back, but he I thought there were other factors in how I played. “
The 24-year-old superstar, nominated for the first team of the All-NBA, played up and down the playoffs. He finished the postseason with the most turnovers a player has experienced in a single playoff in NBA history. In the final, he shot 50% from the field once and less than 40% four times against the Golden State. -Point shot.
As a result, of course, both two-point shooting and playmaking were problems not only for Tatam, but for the entire team to see Boston slightly below the target.But Stevens with Tatum Jaylen Brown In terms of post-season success, they have already reached this point in their career and the team would not have been able to achieve it without them.
Stevens specifically pointed out Tatam’s 46-point game on the Millwalky Road in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals as evidence.
“The way I try to see it is obviously that we are subjective and emotionally responsive at every moment, but when we start seeing it objectively and more historically, Jason and Jalen What did they do historically in the playoffs? Their age is a lean air. ” “We can’t be there even if Jason didn’t play his best series, without him, and without all of his great play forever. I think you are very aware of it.
“Looking back … Milwalky Game 6 was certainly one of the best games I’ve played directly with the Celtics in my time. Without that performance, I would. We would have had this. Discussion a month and a half ago. “
In this discussion, Stevens mentioned how Boston was short of these playoffs and what the Celtics needed to do in terms of improvement. What are the two areas he chose? More consistent bench scoring and playmaking across the roster.
That said, Stevens is aiming for the Celtics to reach the same level as this season thanks to the unique combination of overall size and versatility, and for the Boston to improve this summer. The Celtics, who pointed out that quickly as well, continue to recognize their strengths and stay away from them in order to improve the rest of the team.
“I think we have to walk a little thin line,” Stevens said. “I think teams are fragile. I think the way teams work together and run together is fragile. And when I found a successful team at the defensive end of the floor this year, my team identity was broken. I think we did our best to share the balls aggressively, but they are fragile, so adding them doesn’t mean they aren’t robbing the group of anything. . “
He went on to say that there were no Celtics players-including Robert Williams IIIDealing with left knee pain through the playoffs, requires surgery, and Boston bounces off Williams and everyone else on the roster from a tough playoff run that played 24 of the 28 possible games. It states that it is enough.
