Jayson Tatum knows the Celtics' season is a marathon, not a sprint.
After ripping off three consecutive wins to start the 2022-23 NBA campaign, Boston finds itself in a bit of a rough patch. The reigning Eastern Conference champions dropped three of their last four, including a pair of overtime losses to the upstart Cleveland Cavaliers. The latest loss to the Cavs came Wednesday night when Jaylen Brown was unable to knock down a turnaround jumper as the OT clock expired at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
This recent skid, and specifically the pair of defeats at the hands of Cleveland, exposed some issues the Celtics must address. But after playing for one of the last two teams standing last season, Tatum knows it's foolish to dwell on a game weeks before Thanksgiving.
"The one thing I realized about being in the Finals is when you go all the way to playing in June," Tatum told reporters per The Boston Globe, "stressing about a game Nov. 2 ..."
After a brief pause, Tatum finished his thought.
"Obviously, you want to win every game you play. But (expletive), we've got 75 more games."
The Celtics will try to get back in the win column Friday when they host the Bulls, who beat Boston by 18 points in Chicago on Oct. 24. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
