BOSTON — Blaming the referees after a loss is never a good look. There’s oftentimes something the losing team could have done better that would have improved the final result.
Such was the case Friday night with the Boston Celtics. There certainly were some iffy calls in their Eastern Conference semifinal Game 3 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, but the Celtics were the first ones to admit that they need to improve, starting with head coach Brad Stevens.
“I don’t complain about officials,” Stevens said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff we have to do better and they have a hard job. And we focus on us and the controllables, and that’s the bottom line.”
Stevens is right. The Celtics gave up 40 points in the third quarter of Game 3, which ultimately put them in a hole they couldn’t crawl out of. Minimizing spurts like that is of a much higher priority than complaining about a potentially poor call. When asked if the officiating impacted Boston’s third quarter performance, Stevens went right back to his team’s need for improvements.
“I don’t know that that would be the case,” Stevens said. “We weren’t quite as tight as we like to be. … So you know, if there’s anything, it’s just stuff we have to do better.”
Jayson Tatum refrained from focusing on the officials as well, but for a different reason. It might only be his second year in the league, but the Duke product knows how to avoid a postgame fine.
“I don’t comment on officiating,” Tatum said. “I gotta keep my money.”
From a veteran’s perspective, Al Horford noted that it was difficult to play the majority of the second half with Milwaukee in the bonus, but didn’t mention officiating once during his postgame availability. The big man only spoke about watching more film and improving for Game 4.
Jaylen Brown kept it very simple, even when he was asked about the impact of the referees.
“We just have to play better,” Brown said repeatedly.
The Celtics guard stuck to this response until one final question regarding Boston’s foul trouble came up. It was only then when we got a brief peek into his true feelings on the matter.
“Yeah, a lot of us were in foul trouble,” Brown said with a smirk on his face. “It doesn’t make any sense, but we just have to come out and play better (laughs).”
Game 4 between the Celtics and Bucks tips off from TD Garden on Monday night at 7 p.m. ET.
