After trailing the series 3-2, the Celtics came back to win their second-round series against the Sixers in seven games. Veteran big man Al Horford is stressing the importance of playing with a sense of urgency to his younger teammates, he tells Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com.
“If you look at it, the reality is that even though a lot of younger guys think they have opportunities and will have more of them, these doors close,” Horford said, drawing out those last three words before adding, “You know what I’m saying?
“So when we’re in these positions, I think everybody is starting to understand that, you know, even though, ‘Oh, I’m young. I have time,’ and this and that, it’s not guaranteed that you’re going to be in these positions. That’s something that I feel like we understand, and that’s why we’re trying to make the most of it.”
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- Along those same lines, fellow big man Robert Williams says the Celtics can’t keep digging themselves out of holes after dropping Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Heat. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll come out ready to play in Game 2,” Williams said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “But the problem is we can’t keep relying on that. We can’t rely on our backs being against the wall. There’s no time for it. We have to fix it.”
- Both Horford and Marcus Smart cited poor spacing as a deciding factor in Game 1, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “We get tired of doing the little things sometimes. I think that showed exactly what we was talking about earlier, our spacing,” Smart said. “We have a lot of great players, but when we’re all on top of each other, nobody can be great. You’ve got a good defensive team like Miami, they’ll make you pay for that.”
- Joe Mazzulla‘s reactive coaching style could cost the Celtics the series if he remains passive when the Heat are making big runs, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe opines (subscriber link). Washburn notes the key difference in the game was the third quarter, which Miami won by 20 points, and Mazzulla didn’t switch anything up despite Boston getting thoroughly outplayed.
- Mazzulla chose to give guard Payton Pritchard minutes in Game 1 over forward Grant Williams, an impending restricted free agent. He explained the decision Thursday, tweets Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. “We have a plan to use the depth that we need in order to give us the lineups that we think can really help us,” Mazzulla said. “…I thought Payton gave us an opportunity with his shooting, with his playmaking, his pick and roll defense. …Grant is always going to be ready. And we’ve built a lot of versatility and depth in our lineup where we can go a lot of different ways. We trust that anybody that we call in will be ready.”