“I’m just smiling because I’m going to give you the same answer I’ve given you about 17 times over the last two years,” Nurse mentioned. “He’s got to be more aggressive and take more shots.”
“He’s just got to find them, wherever they are. If it’s transition, if it’s deeper, if it’s more probing, if it’s fadeaways, if it’s turnarounds, if it’s post-ups or whatever it is. I just want him to continue to raise that level of shot attempts and aggressiveness.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was happy with his crew’s defensive effort in Game 1. Derrick White began the sport guarding Maxey, however the Celtics additionally experimented with placing longer defenders corresponding to Jayson Tatum and Jordan Walsh on him at instances.
“He’s a great player, you’re never going to shut him down,” Mazzulla mentioned. “You have to throw multiple bodies, multiple coverages, you have to guard him one-on-five. I thought our level of connectivity, the five people involved on almost every possession was really important, so I thought we did a good job with that.”
Mazzulla expects a greater effort going ahead. The 76ers shot 4 for 23 from 3-point vary, a stat they’re unlikely to duplicate. The Celtics won the rebounding battle and pressured the 76ers by getting attractiveness in transition.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to play a lot better in a lot of areas,” Nurse mentioned. “That’s the biggest thing. We gave up way too much in transition. Gave a lot of iso[lation] baskets up. Just didn’t for whatever reason score well enough, shoot well enough. We’ve got to be better schematically, we’ve got to be more solid on the ball. It’s not just a tweak and adjustment somewhere. We’ve got to play a lot better.”
There have been a number of Game 2 upsets Monday evening.
There have been a number of Game 2 upsets Monday evening. The Knicks misplaced towards Atlanta, and Anthony Edwards powered the Timberwolves to a victory towards the Nuggets with a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double.
“We watched the late games. Both games went close in the last three minutes. Just trying to learn from the process of how different teams execute down the stretch,” Mazzulla mentioned. “Learning as much as we can. Other than that, the most important thing is to focus on us.
“Every game takes on a life of its own. We don’t have control over that. We just have to control how you play, how you execute, and how you move on from each timeout to each timeout, each run to run, each game to game. You’ve just got to play with that consistency.”
Khari Thompson might be reached at khari.thompson@globe.com.
