Google News Jayson Tatum hopes he won't 'shoot that bad again' in NBA Finals
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Jayson Tatum hopes he won't have another rough shooting in the NBA Finals as he was glad the Boston Celtics were able to win Game 1 despite his poor shooting night. Tatum went just 3-of-17 from the field as he finished the game with 12 points.
Tatum didn't score much but he had 13 assists as the Celtics beat the Warriors in Game 1 120-108. The Celtics were down by 12 at the start of the fourth quarter but delivered a huge fourth quarter and ended up claiming a 12-point victory.
"The message at the start of the fourth was, 'We've been here before,'" Tatum said, per ESPN. "We know what it takes to overcome a deficit like that. Obviously that's a great team. It's not going to be easy. But just knowing we've been in that situation before and we've gotten our self out of it.
We had a lot of time left, right? It wasn't time to hang your head or be done, it was time to figure it out."
Tatum: I don't expect to shoot that bad again
"Ecstatic," Tatum said with a smile, when asked how he felt about the game.
"Forty points in the fourth quarter ... guys made big shots, timely shots as well. And we won. I had a bad shooting night. I just tried to impact the game in other ways. We're in the championship. We're in the Finals. All I was worried about was trying to get a win, and we did.
That's all that matters at this point. So I don't expect to shoot that bad again. But if it means we keep winning, I'll take it." Celtics veteran big man Al Horford came up big in Game 1 as he shot 9-of-12 and finished with a team-high 26 points.
"Just continue to play. That was our message throughout the whole game," Horford said. "They're such a good team. And for us, it was just, you know, continue to play no matter what. And our guys, that's what we did. It wasn't our best game, but we continued to fight and find different ways to get this win." Celtics guard Marcus Smart also enjoyed a good shooting night as he went 7-of-11 for 18 points.
"It just says what we've been doing all year," Smart said. "We've been counted out all year. Rightfully so. We've had moments. But we continue to fight. That's who we are. I think over the last couple months, that's our identity. I think it stuck with us for a reason."