Celtics Players Respond To Reports On Marcus Smart And Heated Locker Room After Game 2 Loss| FYF

Hey Jalen. Jalen, the fact that you got, with everything that's been going on in the outside world, you've been in the bubble for over two months. Can you talk about what happened in the locker room afterwards? I've been really just, you know, a lot of emotions flying around. Obviously, I feel like we could have won, you know, should have won, and we didn't. So just Next question is from Abby Chin. I'm on both right now. Guys, there were reports of yelling in the locker rooms and things being thrown. Marcus obviously exited emotional. Can you just kind of speak to that scene or describe what it was like? He plays with passion. He's full of fire. That's what I love about him most, to be honest. He has that desire and that will, and we need him to continue to have that, you know. It's ups and downs with families all the time, but we embrace each other for who we are, who Marcus is. I love him for it. So we got to get ready to come back, take that same fire, and add it to game three. Chris Ryan. Jalen, just your thoughts on that shot to tie it with 15.1 seconds to go. Your thoughts when it left your hand and also why you feel that you guys find yourselves in this hole in the series. I thought it was a good shot. Shot it a little bit long. That was it. What was the second question? Next question, Jalen, is from Andres Lopez. Thank you. Jalen, you guys are 2-0 in a conference final. From a more psychological standpoint, how do you guys remain locked in on this series that is far from over yet? Exactly what you just said. We're in the conference finals. That's all we need to hear, to be locked in. That's all it takes, you know. In both games, we have moments where we got lapses, and that team over there is together for 48 minutes, and we got to be together for 48 minutes to match that. I think that we have yet to do that. I think we're capable. I think we need every piece, everybody to be all in, and to continue to bring that energy is what we're going to need. I think this series is far from over. I'm ready for game three. I'm ready to come out because that's what it's all about. Back against the wall, ups, downs, we can fight, regardless. Back to Bob Tron. Thanks, Jeff. Jalen, obviously you had that big lead in the first half, but then you regrouped after they made their run down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Did you guys maybe hit the wall with three minutes to go? It looked like you were getting a little tired at that point. Was that at all a factor? No, I think at this point, physical fatigue becomes less and less. It's more mental. We just got to be sound, execute, and stay together. That's it. We feel confident about our abilities. We feel confident about the game plan. We just haven't executed it to the extent that we know we can. Two games that we came up short towards the end of the game, and we're looking forward to game three. We got to come out. We got to find a way to win. Jeff, we have some questions in the room. We're going to question Jalen. This is from Chris Ryan. No, Jeff, we have questions in the room as well. Here. You want to take that one on Zoom, and then we'll do the three in the room? Prime. Thanks. Jalen, can you hear me? The biggest reasons why you feel that you're down two at this point, you guys discussed complacency after game one. What are the biggest reasons in your view that you're down in a serious way? We just haven't played a full 48 minutes of being locked in and executing the game plan for maybe about 75%. We play really well, and it's always one quarter or one sequence of events where we have lapses. Against this team, we can't have those. We take that away a little bit. Question in person, Jalen, from Gary Washburn. There's a lot of stuff going on there. Is everything key now, or are you going to have to meet a roommate tomorrow and come together again? Or did you all kind of make up? I think everything is understood. We're going to have a meeting tomorrow regardless, just to watch the film and go over the game plan with the coach. At the end of the day, emotions don't fly. Obviously, we wanted to win this game, and we did, but this series is far from over. We got to get ready for game three. It's how it goes. There's ups and downs. There's fights. There's emotions, but that's exactly what we are, a family. We're going to hold each other accountable, and we got to do what it takes to come out and execute this game. Would you say that what happened there was needed? I think so. I think it's a beauty to it. A lot of people are passionate and emotional, and I'm one of those people. I recognize it as that. I recognize it as emotion and passion. I don't recognize it as nothing else. The media might see it or whatever. That's all it is. It's passion, just being expressed. We got to express that. It's any passion. Next game for 48 minutes, period. Final question, Jalen, from Michael Rosenberg in person, please. Thank you. When you talk about lapses and 75 percent of the game you play well, did you think this was a problem before this series as well? I don't think it's a problem. I think it's growth that's taking place, and we've been challenged throughout these playoffs multiple times to continue to grow. We got a young group. We got a group that is new to playoff experience for the most part, especially playing together. I don't think it's a problem. It's just things that we have to improve on, you know what I mean, and that we have in certain moments, and we haven't in certain moments. It's a great opportunity to show growth this game. Thank you very much, Jalen. Thanks, Jeff. Kemba, did you and Brad talk about playing fewer minutes? You played about 34 minutes in this one, didn't get into the fourth quarter until about eight minutes to go. No, we didn't. It just happened that way. I'm on both right now. Guys, there were reports of yelling in the locker rooms and things being thrown. Marcus obviously exited emotional. Can you just kind of speak to that scene or describe what it was like? It was nothing. It was nothing. Kemba, what happened in the third quarter? Man, they outplayed us. They outplayed us. It was really unacceptable on our behalf. It was just a really bad quarter for us. We didn't continue to do the things that we did to get us up and get us that lead. I think we got kind of comfortable. Those guys, they took great advantage of it. They played hard. They played really hard. They played a lot harder than us. They wanted it. When you guys got back up by five late in the fourth quarter, they went on another big run and turned the game around. What happened there and how do you guys have a third quarter like that and that end of the game after the way the fourth quarter went in game one? I don't know. We fought our way back. Just a lot of mistakes, man. We make too many minor mistakes that really hurt us. We got to clean that up in order to beat these guys. Kemba, with things getting kind of emotional after the game, what do you have to do as a leader to make sure things don't go the wrong way and you keep everyone together and bring everyone together? It won't. Ain't nothing happening in the locker room. I don't know what you're talking about, to be honest. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. Kemba, their zone defense seemed to give you guys a lot of issues there in the second half. What do you guys need to just do better against that to get better looks? We're going to watch the film. We're going to watch the film. We got to find a way. That's really it. We got to get into the lane and just make plays. There were a bunch of plays where you had three guys under the rim on defense and the ball would go up for a rebound and you guys would be staring at each other and then someone from Miami would fly in to get the rebound. How do you guys have to communicate better to just make sure you get those defensive rebounds and prevent those huge second chances? That's on us. That's on us. They do a great job at flying in. We just got to do a better job at getting on their bodies and preparing those guys for getting in the lane. When the ball goes in the air, we got to hit some bodies. All right. We'll wrap it up right there. Thanks. I appreciate it. Jason Tatum will be next. He'll be our final player available on this card. All right. Questions for Jason. Start with Chris Ryan. Jason, there's been reports about what happened in the locker room tonight and Marcus becoming emotional. What were your takeaways from that and is all good coming out of it? I don't know who said that. We're 0-2. We're frustrated. It's team sports. You're not supposed to be happy if you're down 0-2. Nothing out of the ordinary. Talking about the game. It's cool. Got to get ready for the next one. Tim Bontemps. Jason, what happened in the third quarter? They outplayed us. That's a long story short. They outplayed us. And then down the stretch, you guys got back up five. They go on to take a 17-6 run to close the game. Was it a similar thing there? And how do you guys have that happen after the way the fourth quarter went in game one? Yeah, that's tough. Offensive rebounds, key turnovers, miscommunication. They hit some big shots. A lot of things went wrong. I got to get ready for the next one. Adam Himmelsbach. Jason, you only attempted two three-pointers. What are the challenges in finding looks against their zone and what do you have to do to free yourself up to get more opportunities next game from beyond the arc? I think just being ready to shoot, obviously. Just shoot over the defenders any day late I get. I think I turned a couple of them down, which I shouldn't do. So that's on me. Question in person, Gary Washburn. What happened after the game? Was that necessary for you guys to get shut out? What happened after the game? I mean, what happened after the game? What happens in the locker room? We got to stay in the locker room. It's not supposed to come out here and talk about what we talked about as a team after a win or a loss. That's why we go in the locker room and talk to each other. Whether we win or we lose. So, I mean, that's that. It seems like you need to go up, respond to go down, kind of get in. How do y'all approach tomorrow? Got to figure some things out. Two times now we've had a couple double digit leads and you know, we let go of the ropes. So we got to figure out, you know, why that keeps happening. And just be prepared to win the next one. You know, not looking at we got to win four out of five or how many we got left. Just win the next one. Just take one game at a time. Jason, a lot of talk about their zone defense. We've seen you guys break down the zone. We know that you know what to do. Why is that scheme giving you so much trouble? I wish I knew. I mean, I got to look at the film. But you got to have better spacing, I think. A lot of times we just weren't in the right spots. And whether against man or zone, you know, that's not going to help. You always got to have the right spacing. In order to create good movement, create a good shot, your spacing messed up against a good team, good defensive team. It's tough. Final couple of questions. Jared Weiss. You mentioned the offensive rebounds that they were getting. There were a few were, I mean, you've been dominating the class in the fourth quarters lately, but there were a few plays in this game where you and a team were kind of looking at each other and didn't go up for the ball. Miami went up for the ball with one guy. What are the communication breakdowns there? How come it's not everybody going up for the ball? Yeah, I mean, that's on me. You know, I didn't rebound nearly as good as I normally have been. And you can't expect other people to get it. You just got to go up there and get it, or tip it to somebody. So yeah, rebounding, I got to take ownership on that. I got a rebound way better than I did tonight. Final question for Jason Brian Rock. Jason, you guys have seen a lot of zone, obviously, against Toronto in this series. What are the challenges Miami presents with, you know, just their length and athletism that's different from what you guys have seen before? Similar to Toronto, I mean, they're a great team, great defensively. They're long, they help. So like I said earlier, we just got to be in the right spots. Whatever we're running, spacing is key in offense. And tonight I don't think we did a great job of that. I think that was apparent watching the game. Fixable. So just get ready for the next one. Take it one game.