“Aww s—t!! We all had a rough night, but I got all the faith in Jaylen Brown”: Jayson Tatum defends Celtics’ struggles to get going against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co

The Boston Celtics lost their first game due to an inefficient night from the whole squad, Jayson Tatum comes out defending Jaylen Brown.

The first battle of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals saw the Boston Celtics taking on the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday inside TD Garden. The best team of the First Round who swept the heavy favorites Brooklyn Nets on their way looked just a version of themselves.

The game started pretty well for both the teams with the Bucks taking just a 3-point lead into the second quarter, but from there onwards, the C’s struggled to be efficient throughout the game.

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And while they were unable to convert most of the chances they were getting, they couldn’t stop Bucks from scoring and building upon their lead. Even Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co were struggling to get points efficiently, but they got them somehow and won the game comprehensively with a 101-89 stat line.

Celtics head coach Ime Udoka told reporters that both Brown and Tatum probably should have made some of the shots they missed Sunday afternoon.

“I don’t think our decision-making was great when we got to the paint,” Udoka said. “Whether it was drop-offs or kick-outs. I thought Jayson and Jaylen were off their games and missed some that they usually make.”

Jayson Tatum tries defending Jaylen Brown’s struggles in the game, the latter comes up with a better breakdown for the loss and how to get back

Tatum, who was quite clearly the best player of the First Round of Playoffs, didn’t quite play half as good as he did against the Nets. He scored 21 points off the 6/18 shooting, and after the game talking to the reporters, he looked to defend Brown’s struggles who was only a little less efficient than JT going 4/13 for his 12 points.

None of the Celtics players, apart from Robert Williams III, who played above 5 minutes and took more than 1 attempt, shot better than 37% in the game leading up to a pretty inefficient game as a whole squad. Brown had a lot better and more mature take on it.

“We’ve been resilient all year,” Brown said. “This is just a testament to what we have experienced throughout the season, the ups and downs…This group is tested, so just gotta come out with confidence and not lose our faith in each other.”

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It is the reason why Brown has emerged as the best leader in the Boston squad this season. Not just his game but his maturity well ahead of his age has kept this squad together even after they were struggling to gel well at the start of the season.