With a pivotal matchup looming Thursday night against the Bucks, the Boston Celtics still had a shot at catching Milwaukee for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
But after an embarrassing loss to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night, that showdown doesn’t mean as much as the Celtics can pretty much kiss home-court advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs goodbye.
With the 130-111 defeat to the shorthanded Wizards, who were without Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma, the Celtics fell to 2 1/2 games behind the Bucks for the No. 1 seed with six contests remaining. Boston has a stranglehold on second place with the Philadelphia 76ers 2 1/2 games back of the Celtics.
But the thought of the Celtics having to potentially go on the road in the Eastern Conference finals against the Bucks doesn’t concern star forward Jayson Tatum.
“Uh…..no not really,” Tatum told reporters after the loss, per The Athletic’s Jared Weiss. “In the playoffs, you’re gonna have to win on the road at some point.”
While the Celtics used home court to their advantage to send the Bucks packing in the Eastern Conference semifinals a year ago, they also showed they could win monumental games on the road during their run to the NBA Finals.
Tatum put together a standout performance in Milwaukee during Game 6 of that series and the Celtics took down the Miami Heat on the road in Game 7 to punch their ticket to the Finals.
But unlike last season, the Celtics seem to be fading heading into the playoffs instead of hitting their peak. Again, though, Tatum remained unfazed.
“You never want to have these moments, but somehow, someway they tend to happen throughout the course of 82 games,” Tatum told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston. “They count as one, whether it’s right now or whether it was in December. It’s still a loss. Honestly, you just got to move on from it.”
