INDIANAPOLIS — The Celtics improved to 4-0 in crunch time games during this postseason run after Monday’s 105-102 Game 4 win over the Pacers. The visitors trailed by eight points with just under six minutes remaining in regulation before closing the game out with a 15-4 run to secure their spot in the NBA Finals.
Derrick White was one of the heroes of the night after hitting the game-winning 3-point jumper in the corner. After the win, he reflected on Boston’s ability to stay composed in those big spots after rallying for three wins late in their series win over the Pacers, pointing out a unique tool Joe Mazzulla had used to help them.
“We feel confident,” White said..” It starts in practice, the championship stations that Joe loves to do, it starts there. And just continue to trust one another. So we feel comfortable in any type of game and we feel like we’ve got the answers for anything that teams throw at us no matter what the scenario is, and we just got to find the right ones.”
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Jayson Tatum shed some more light on the championship stations that Mazzulla uses after his 33-point night.
“It’s the little things that we talk about that can help you win a championship,” Tatum said. “Defensive rebounding, crashing the glass on the offense, communicating and just little things we do every single day that can take you a long way.”
Boston struggled in these spots in past postseasons, suffering several blown leads and near losses after late-game collapses. Some of those struggles have lingered in tight games during the regular season but Boston’s core has appeared to turn a new leaf during this postseason run.
‘ll give credit to our coaching staff,” Jaylen Brown said. “We were very organized. This year, we went over a lot of late-game situations and stuff like that. We’re always trying to think the game. We got to be in those situations. Everybody talks about what our late-game offense looks like, and I thought we got some great opportunities in this series to display that. We came out on top, so that was great.”
“I think Joe’s pretty good at, I wouldn’t say predicting situations, but kind of putting this in awkward situations or situations that are very, very possible,” Jrue Holiday added. “The last two games we were down eight with two minutes left, and I think to be able to manage the game, having Derrick White out there manage the game, and then JT and JB kind of take over, it’s exactly what Joe was talking about. I think we have the mindset and the character for it, and then we just went out there and showed it.”
