Brown: Celtics ‘came out … flat’ but ‘have another chance’ vs Heat

The Boston Celtics blew a shot at evening the Eastern Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat, but now find themselves trailing 3-1.

“I think we came out a little bit flat, and it wasn’t enough to win tonight.”

That, right there, was the game.

Boston Celtics star forward Jaylen Brown offered a withering assessment of how his team squandered their opportunity to draw even with the Miami Heat in an Eastern Conference series they trailed one game to two.

“We wanted to get a win tonight. We didn’t,” he said. “The thing is we have another chance, another opportunity to keep playing. I believe in fighting to the end. That’s the way a lot of our guys minds’ are wired. So, we’ve just got to come out and take it one game at a time.”

“Now we’ll get ready for Game 5, [and] get ready to fight,” added Brown.

A flat start by both teams gave the Celtics a chance to take the lead in the first half, but Boston was equally listless with Jayson Tatum scoreless in the first half, and the Heat the better team in the second half.

Which is not exactly a new phenomena in this series.

“We’ve just got to be better next game — it’s not over,” suggested Brown. “It can be done. We’ve got a lot of heart in this locker room. So we’ve just got to come out and be better for next game. Just one game at a time; that’s it.”

Boston only has one game left to lose, for the rest of this series, so one game at a time indeed.

What can be done to avert a repeat of this outcome in Game 5?

“I think we’ve got to be aggressive, take care of the basketball,” ventured the Georgia native. “On defense we’ve got to continue to be aggressive, too.”

These may sound like stock answers, but when you aren’t taking care of important fundamentals against a team that almost never doesn’t, it has to be a point of emphasis.

“Guys get going, we’ve got to step up a little bit more to kind of slow them down,” added Brown. “Guys got comfortable out there, and they just started hitting shot after shot after shot. It’s tough to beat a team when they are making shots, and we’ve got to set the tone better from the start, and a lot of that is me.”

This reference to Tyler Herro’s career night isn’t meant to take away anything from the rookie’s historic 37-point performance.

But conversely, at least some of the buckets’ arc were greased by an underwhelming defensive effort from the Celtics.

“Coming out next game is what we should be looking to do,” suggested Brown.

That, and play like the team we know they are.

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