Ime Udoka isn't afraid to call out the Celtics when needed, especially when it comes to complaining to officials, and that rang true Wednesday night.
Boston fell to the Miami Heat at TD Garden in a back-and-forth Eastern Conference battle that featured a technical foul on Jayson Tatum, a Marcus Smart ejection in the fourth quarter and a lot of complaining by Tatum.
So much so, that Udoka had to talk to the C's at halftime about it.
"A little bit of complaining, I think it was early in the game. We talked about it at halftime. We were complaining a little bit too much, being down one as poorly as we played early and not playing our best basketball," Udoka told reporters after the game, per MassLive's Brian Robb. "We got caught up in that early in the game as some calls late that didn't go our way and we got caught up in that. We still have to transfer down to the other end and continue to guard, play through it. It's a physical team that felt like a playoff atmosphere (Wednesday)as far as that. We could do a better job with our composure for sure."
The Celtics went on a tear to catapult their way to the top of the Eastern Conference standings but now sit in fourth place after losing their last two games.
Boston will need to make sure to not get in its own way during the final stretch of the 2021-22 season, especially seeing how the C's will be without Robert Williams for four to six weeks.
The Celtics continue their homestand Friday night when they welcome the Indiana Pacers to TD Garden for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff.
