After exploding the Bucks with a 41-point difference on Thursday night, the Celtics were to confirm on Friday against the Jazz. Except that circumstances complicated things for the 2022 finalists. Indeed, Jayson Tatum and his teammates were stranded in Milwaukee after the meeting.
For what ? Because the plane was missing a pilot, and that’s not the title of a film… The Boston players therefore spent the night in Wisconsin, after also experiencing minor logistical problems to find a hotel. For the record, the same thing happened last night to the Lakers, stranded in Minneapolis.
“We had flight problems so we traveled this Friday morning, around 10:30 am to arrive at 1:30 pm”, explained Grant Williams on Friday to Mass Live. “We have no control over this kind of thing. We want to go home, but circumstances prevent you. Afterwards, you have to be professional and not make an excuse of it. Having traveled on game day does not change the objective. It’s easy if you lose to blame it on travel issues. »
Traveling on game day is not common and the Celtics also faced a motivated Utah team, because they were still in the race for the “play-in”, only six hours after getting off the plane. Without forgetting the absences of Robert Williams III and Al Horford for this meeting. “It was tough, that’s for sure. But no matter the conditions, you had to fight and get through it,” says Marcus Smart.
This victory is important for Joe Mazzulla’s men because it allows them to return to 1.5 successes for the Bucks, at the top of the Eastern Conference. As we know, the Celtics are still aiming for first place and a loss against the Jazz would clearly not have helped for that.
“Everything was a bit turned upside down, but we saw it as a challenge”continues Tatum, 39 points in this meeting, always for Mass Live. “With everything that happened, we could have found an excuse. But basically, it brought us even closer. We talked about it on the plane, we were united to fight. Everyone agreed that nothing was perfect, but we were going to find a way to win this game. It was nice to find a way to win after those 24 hours. It was rewarding. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 71 | 37.2 | 46.4 | 35.0 | 85.6 | 1.1 | 7.8 | 8.9 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 30.2 |
| Jaylen Brown | 65 | 35.9 | 49.6 | 34.2 | 76.8 | 1.2 | 5.7 | 6.9 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 26.9 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 64 | 25.8 | 48.3 | 44.1 | 87.8 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 14.6 |
| Derrick White | 77 | 28.3 | 46.2 | 38.8 | 87.5 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 12.2 |
| Marcus Smart | 59 | 32.2 | 41.7 | 33.9 | 75.7 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 11.4 |
| Al Horford | 61 | 30.5 | 47.9 | 45.1 | 71.4 | 1.1 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 9.7 |
| Grant Williams | 74 | 26.4 | 45.4 | 39.7 | 78.4 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 8.3 |
| Robert Williams | 33 | 23.3 | 74.5 | 0.0 | 63.2 | 3.0 | 5.3 | 8.3 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 8.0 |
| Sam Hauser | 75 | 15.6 | 44.9 | 41.7 | 70.6 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 6.1 |
| Payton Pritchard | 46 | 12.5 | 39.0 | 33.1 | 73.3 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 4.7 |
| Mike Muscala | 15 | 14.0 | 43.1 | 37.8 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 4.5 |
| Blake Griffin | 36 | 13.9 | 49.6 | 35.6 | 60.7 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 4.3 |
| Luke Kornet | 64 | 11.4 | 69.3 | 27.3 | 81.1 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| Jd Davison | 10 | 2.7 | 38.5 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| noah vonleh | 23 | 7.4 | 45.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 2 | 7.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 |
| justin jackson | 23 | 4.7 | 25.9 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
