CLEVELAND -- The Boston Celtics had a long film session on Sunday morning, going over everything they did wrong in their 116-86 loss in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers the night before. While coach Brad Stevens repeatedly gave the Cavaliers credit -- and they were indeed great -- swingman Jaylen Brown was one of several Celtics to bluntly own up to their poor play.
"We could see the mistakes we made," Brown said, "and [Stevens] made it apparent that we beat ourselves first and foremost."
Brown, Boston's 21-year-old intellectual, said that 90 percent of the game is mental. Repeatedly, he stressed that they need to have the right mindset in the next game. He said the Celtics were "frustrated with ourselves more than anything" when going over the game tape, and he in particular needed to assert himself despite Cleveland trying to take the ball out of his hands.
In each the first two games of the series, Brown scored 23 points. He had 24 points on 10 for 13 shooting in the clincher against the Philadelphia 76ers, too. On Saturday, though, the Cavs held him to just 10 points on 3 for 8 shooting, with three turnovers and five fouls in 21 minutes on Saturday. An off-night like that would normally not be surprising for someone in his second season, but Brown has been performing like an All-Star throughout the playoffs.
"I use it as fuel because I thought it was embarrassing," Brown said. "I thought we came out, the way I played, the way I performed, how not aggressive I was in the first half, I look at that as fuel to come out in Game 3 and be excited about it and be ready to play and ready to fight."
Boston forward Marcus Morris said he allowed himself to be screened too easily when defending LeBron James, describing himself as "terrible" and saying he needed to be more disciplined in games of this magnitude.
"Personally, I think I did a s--- job defensively with LeBron. He was too comfortable when I was guarding him."
Stevens said that Boston didn't move the ball as well as it usually does or "own our space" as much as it should have. "We got thoroughly outplayed on both ends," he said, adding that no one on the team felt good leaving the arena or waking up in the morning. The day-to-day coverage of the playoffs makes it seem like momentum is always wildly swinging from one direction to another. The Celtics might have been too confident after having such a strong start to the series, and maybe they needed to be humbled. All Stevens wanted was for them to take a hard, honest look at the film, see where they were outworked and out-executed, then move on.
Or, as Brown put it: "We can't look in the past and dwell on the s--- we did last night."
At Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue raved about James' defense. The superstar took a less-is-more approach on the offensive end, scoring 27 points on 8 for 12 shooting with 12 assists, allowing him to focus more mental and physical energy on disrupting Boston's rhythm.
"I thought last night was LeBron's best game I've seen in a long time as far as helping, closing out to Jaylen Brown's chest, making him put it on the floor, closing out to [Marcus] Morris, closing out to [Marcus] Smart," Lue said. "He did a really good job of just setting the tone with multiple efforts."
When James is that active and Tristan Thompson is doing everything he can to take Al Horford out of his comfort zone, Cleveland suddenly looks like a competent defensive team. That version of the Cavaliers demands that the Celtics play near their peak in terms of communication, decision-making and effort. Boston is still the deeper, more versatile and much more athletic team here. It just wasn't as obvious on Saturday, with Cleveland jumping out to a 20-4 lead and feeding off the energy of the Quicken Loans Arena crowd.
"We should come out and we should be more connected, we should be more excited, and we think we can hang with the best of anybody," Brown said. "It's all about mindset."
Horford, a sage veteran, said that the Cavs had "exposed" the Celtics for not taking care of the little things defensively. Smart said they are anxious to get back on the court and redeem themselves because the loss "left a bad taste in our mouths." Stevens said that Cleveland put them on their heels, but it was because "they did what they do harder," not because the matchups were significantly different.
The implication, of course, is that while Boston might make some tweaks before Game 4 -- perhaps Aron Baynes will re-enter the starting five, for instance -- the main thing Stevens wants to see is a change in intensity and connectivity. The Celtics understand this. One of them went so far as to guarantee it will happen.
"That team we saw yesterday, I'm 100 percent sure it won't be the same team on Monday," Morris said.
