Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have often been pitted against each other, and treated as rivals instead of teammates. They showed in Wednesday's NBAFinals Game 3 win why the Celtics kept them together, writes SIChrisMannix
“We want to impose our size and will in this series,” said Ime Udoka after the game. all season. He has harped on Williams playing through pain. Williams has responded, playing a career-high 61 games in the regular season and returning to the lineup just one month after knee surgery. Williams is obviously limited—the usually springy big man labors when forced to run up the floor—but that hasn’t lowered Udoka’s expectations.
"I'm just trying to be accountable for my team,” Williams said. “We made it this far. I had a discussion with myself about pushing through this, but I’m happy with how it's going. We’ll worry about the injury at the end of the season. But for now, I’m still fighting." In the fourth, Boston closed the show. Udoka said he felt the Celtics “wilted” in the second half of Game 2. In Game 3, they surged. Smart scored eight of his 24 points, while limiting Curry to just two in the final 12 minutes. After getting shredded in the third, the Celtics’ defense tightened in the fourth, holding the Warriors to 33.3% shooting and 11.1% from three.
The Celtics lead 2–1 and have left Golden State looking for answers. Curry was hobbling late in the fourth quarter and the Warriors will need to find offense beyond Curry, Thompson and For the Celtics, Udoka says, it’s about maintaining the intensity. “The message was, ‘We’ve done this after losses. It’s time to do it after wins,’” Udoka said. Later, he added, "We've been battle-tested throughout the playoffs. We've seen what makes us successful and just have to have it carry over.
And for Tatum and Brown? Months after public calls for them to be separated, Boston’s cornerstones are two wins away from a championship.