NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 17, 2020

Jayson Tatum

Boston Celtics

Game 2: Postgame

Miami Heat 106, Boston Celtics 101

Q. There have been reports about what happened in the locker room tonight, Marcus becoming emotional. What were your takeaways from that? Is all good coming out of it?

JAYSON TATUM: I don't know who said that. We're frustrated. But that's team sports. You're not supposed to be happy we're down 0-2. Nothing going on there. Just talking about the game. It's cool. Got to get ready for the next one.

Q. What happened in the third quarter?

JAYSON TATUM: They outplayed us. That's a long story short. They outplayed us.

Q. Down the stretch you got back up five, they make a 17-6 run to close the game. Was it a similar thing there? How do you have that happen after the way the fourth quarter went in Game 1?

JAYSON TATUM: Yeah, offensive rebounds, some key turnovers, miscommunication. They had some big shots. A lot of things went wrong. But got to get ready for the next one.

Q. You only attempted two three-pointers. What are the challenges in finding looks against their zone? What do you have to do to free yourself to get more opportunities from beyond the arc?

JAYSON TATUM: I think just being ready to shoot, obviously. Just shoot over the defenders. Any daylight I get. I think I turned a couple of them down, which I shouldn't do. That's on me.

Q. What happened after the game?

JAYSON TATUM: What happened after the game?

Q. The arguments inside the locker room.

JAYSON TATUM: What happened after the game, what happens in a locker room, got to stay in the locker room. Not supposed to come out here and talk about what we talk about as a team after a win or a loss. That's why we go in the locker room and talk to each other, whether we win or we lose. That's that.

Q. What happens tomorrow? Seems like you go up, respond, or go down and kind of give in. How do you approach tomorrow?

JAYSON TATUM: Got to fix some things up. Two times now we've had a couple double-digit leads and we let go of the ropes. We got to figure out why that keeps happening. Just have to be prepared to win the next one. Not looking at we got to win four out of five, however many we got left. Just win the next one. Take it one game at a time.

Q. A lot of talk about their zone defense. We've seen you break down the zone, know you know what to do. Why is that scheme giving you so much trouble?

JAYSON TATUM: I wish I knew. I got to look at the film. But you got to have better spacing, I think. A lot of times we just weren't in the right spots. Whether against man or zone, that's not going to help. You always got to have the right spacing in order to create good movement, create a good shot. When your spacing is messed up against a good team, a good defensive team, it's tough.

Q. You mentioned the offensive rebounds they were getting. You've been dominating the glass in the fourth quarters lately. There were plays when you and a teammate were looking at each other not going up for the ball, while Miami did. How come it's not everybody going up for the ball the way it usually is?

JAYSON TATUM: Yeah, that's on me. I didn't rebound nearly as good as I normally have been. You can't expect other people to get it. You have to go up there and get it or tip it to somebody.

Yeah, rebounding, I got to take ownership on that. I got to rebound way better than I did tonight.

Q. You have seen a lot of zone against Toronto and this series. What are the challenges Miami presents?

JAYSON TATUM: Similar to Toronto. They're a great, great team. Great defensively. They're long. They help. Like I said earlier, we just got to be in the right spots. Whatever we're running, spacing is key on offense. Tonight, I don't think we did a great job of that. I think that was apparent watching the game. Fixable.

So just get ready for the next one. Take it one game at a time.