BOSTON. Before the performance in their first round against Orlando Magic, the head coach of Boston Celtics, Joe Mazzalla, did not want to hear about what kind of vacation the victory would allow his sick team.
“Well, we must win the game 5,” he said.
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What they did, dominating Orlando in the second half of the victory 120-89 and winning the series 4-1.
Meanwhile, the opponent of the next round remains unresolved, since Detroit pistons defeated “New York NIX”, expanding their series to the sixth game planned for Thursday. The results on Tuesday gave Celtics for at least a few days of rest, and this is important, given the bruises that they gathered against magic.
“This is good and bad,” said Maczalla, when the opposite, subsequently additional rest. “We will leave the arena for a couple of days. It can be good. But I think that when we begin to prepare for the next series, we must return to the arena and prepare. We will take those days that we need, and we will return to her. ”
They will need these days. It was the same physical series as in the NBA in the first round, full of physical form. Jaylene Brown has been fighting with a trauma of the right knee since mid -March. Jason Tatum received a bruise on his wrist from a hard foul in the game 1. And Jrue Holid missed the third game with the right tension of the pod -shaped tendon, which Mazzalla called the “everyday” injury forward.
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“It’s great,” Brown said about additional rest. “When will we play the earliest?” No one knew for sure. “Whatever it is, I’m going to use it and be ready to go through someone, who will be next.”
Go through their. This is how this series of the first round is against magic. Despite the unilateral result, Orlando gave Celtics everything that they could cope in terms of physical form. The magic, whose defense took second place in the NBA in the regular season, guarded the Celtics directly, rarely helping, always switching, presenting a ton of matches 1 to 1. The game plan demanded that Boston go through them.
This tatum made on Tuesday evening, scoring 35 points (10 out of 16 at shooting), 10 transmissions and eight rebounds in 34 minutes of work. He did the same in the game 4, gaining 37 points, 14 rebounds and three programs. Helpers were difficult to find throughout the series. Since the magic remained at home on Boston arrows, there were no light exits for open 3. So, instead, the tatum and Brown did their job on the island and did it well.
This was another lesson for the team, which saw almost all in six performances in the conference final over the past eight years, including two trips to the final and the championship last year.
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“You could say this,” Brown said. “I just look at every experience as an opportunity to learn, so it was an excellent training experience for us to go through the full series of playoffs, the need to be physical, we have to get into trenches. Folls, reproduced it. Physics, reproduce it. And yet I will find ways of victory. Continue to build, but it’s great that in our back pocket we can go into the play -off. ”
As the big man Seltix Al Horford said, if we know something about NIX and pistons, “they both play very hard.” If any team hoped that magic would give a plan to win against Celtics, because they believe that, in any case, this series was the one that made them stronger.
“I thought it was the theme of the series – physics in the trenches,” said Maczalla. “Each series, every game presents lessons, and you take these lessons if you are lucky enough to move on. We can learn a lot from this series, and we will be ready for who we play further. ”
Tatum is more than ready. The problems presented by magic, he solved them, just as he plans to do so that someone will appear further. Confidence that this is happening from the experience of victory last season.
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“This season was the most relaxed and carefree than I was in my career, realizing that we won last year, we reached the final goal, and we seemed to remove this monkey from the back,” Tatum said. “It is obvious that this year the goal is still the same as to win and compete for the championship. I just liked this season, playing a carefree basketball and did not depend on my head. It was fun.
“This allows me to focus on the upcoming task. I am not worried about trying to prove that someone is wrong or something like that. He understands that I know what I am capable of. I know that we, when we play in a certain way, and we showed this, so the whole thing is to achieve this level. ”
This is true: this series was not the best of Celtics. They know who they are, and they have another level. Maybe NIX or pistons will be pulled out of them in the next round. They are likely to be needed against Cleveland Cavaliers in the final of the Eastern Conference. This can get ahead of itself, but these are current champions, and they expect this from themselves.
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“I do not accept anything of this for granted,” said Brown, who, with the victory on Tuesday, who received the Celtics legend, 17 victories in the play of the play -off with 17 career series. “This is my ninth season and the eighth play -off, so I do not perceive it for granted. To be able to be in the midst of some of the most winners in this franchise, with a lot of growth, still in front of me, I am very grateful. I’m glad to move on to the next round. I am excited to continue in the same spirit. This is the play -off.
But first a little deserved rest.
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