Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics entered their Sunday night matchup against the New York Knicks eager to wash away the stench of their crushing collapse on Friday against the Brooklyn Nets. As one might recall, the Celtics held a 28-point lead against the Nets before suffering one of their worst losses of the season. However, the Celtics were unable to fend off the surging Knicks despite the absence of Jalen Brunson.
Tatum's 40 points ended up being for naught after the Celtics lost to the Knicks, 131-129, in double overtime. The Celtics ran their famous out of timeout play (which starts with Tatum receiving the ball on the backcourt) and had a chance to win it at the buzzer on an Al Horford triple, which fell short.
As a result, the Celtics have now lost two in a row; however, what's most concerning to some is that the former Eastern Conference leaders are playing uncharacteristically poor basketball on both ends of the floor. On Sunday night, it was shooting troubles that plagued them, with Jayson Tatum even going 12-30 from the field (6-17 from deep) en route to a teamwide 39.5 percent shooting on the night. Nevertheless, Tatum remains confident that the Celtics will regain their groove just in time with the postseason just over a month away.
“We gotta get our groove back, which, you know, I'm confident that we will. [We will] get back to being ourselves and playing with that swagger on both ends of the floor for 48 minutes,” Tatum said in his postgame presser, via NBC Sports Boston.
"We gotta get our groove back, I'm confident that we will."
Jayson Tatum on Celtics' recent struggles pic.twitter.com/v4cno0Aagj
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 6, 2023
This Celtics team is no stranger to adversity. After all, they have had to weather a few issues, both on and off the court, over the past year or so, and even then, they remain one of the best teams in the league.
Jayson Tatum and the Celtics famously had to overcome their mediocre output by the halfway mark of last season; they managed to pull off a remarkable defensive turnaround en route to an NBA Finals appearance. And then in the offseason, the Celtics had to deal with former head coach Ime Udoka's issues.
If there's a team with the experience necessary to overcome this kind of adversity, it's these Celtics.
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