The 2020-21 edition of the Boston Celtics have not done anything this season to earn the trust of fans.
They’ve been extremely inconsistent. They’ve came out flat in must-win games with playoff seeding on the line. And they’ve mounted massive comebacks just to come up short in the end.
One area the Celtics do remain consistent in, however, and for better or for worse, is they seem to say the right things. They did just that after their worst single-game losses as well as after their most brutal stretches.
Boston did much of the same after a Game 2 blowout to the second-seeded Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night, a 130-108 verdict, in which the C’s trailed by as much as 33 in the second half.
Now, whether you believe them is up to you.
“We go home, get some good rest, see our families, see each other again tomorrow in the gym, look at the film, talk about what we need to change and adjust, and go from there,” Marcus Smart said on a postgame video conference after scoring a team-high 19 points. “They did their job tonight. They took care of home court. And now it’s our job. It’s over with. Now we got to move on to the next game.
“We’ve had plenty of games where we’ve been down and came back, series we’ve been down and came back. So it’s nothing new,” Smart continued. “Unfortunately, we haven’t been playing good all year, but we can’t really let that sway how we come out and play this next game, Game 3. Like I said, they took care of home court, but it is what it is. We’re basketball players. We’re competitors. We practice. We work hard. We put in the work. So we just got to go out there and continue to believe, continue to do what we’ve been doing and just make it tough. … Continue to stay positive. Negativity isn’t going to help us right now.”
Evan Fournier, who scored 16 points on 4-for-5 from long range, expressed much of the same. He also noted the obvious importance of Game 3.
“I mean, Game 3 is obviously kind of a life-and-death situation,” Fournier said on a postgame video conference. “They did their job. They won two games at home, and now we have to do ours. But I mean, obviously, I don’t have to tell you guys being down 3-0 is not a good place. We have to regroup, stay focused, stay locked in, learn from our mistakes and just be ready for a battle. Period.”
The Celtics also acknowledged how they will welcome getting back to TD Garden and playing in front of home fans.
“They had their crowd tonight so it’s going to feel real good for us to have ours,” Smart said. “It definitely helps a lot. We’ve been without it for a while and it’s going to feel real good to have those guys back in there cheering for us and giving that extra energy.”
Kemba Walker added: ‘We’re just going to continue to stay positive, stay together and we’re going to try to take care of home court. That’s what it’s about.”
The Celtics, who face a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series, will host the Nets on Friday at TD Garden with tip off scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET.
