Celtics gear up for game 3, Tatum talks fatherhood as an NBA player

Get your green on. The Celtics are gearing up for game three of the NBA Finals. The series has now shifted to Boston and it’s been a while since there’s been a finals game there.

You have to go back to 2010 when the Celtics played the Lakers in the NBA Finals. But now, the Celtics are hosting the latest dynasty in basketball, the Golden State Warriors and they’re hoping to take the lead in the series which is currently tied at one a piece.

Boston has won eight games on the road in the postseason, including the first game against the Warriors in San Francisco. But the Warriors dominated in game two. Playing at home hasn’t always been a lock for the C’s. They’ve only won five games in the Garden in this postseason. But they hope they can use their sixth man—their home crowd-- to their advantage tonight.

“First Finals game at home, at the Garden,” said Jayson Tatum. “It’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to it, and enjoying this experience.”

“I already know that the Boston fans are going to bring it up a notch and maybe a couple more notches in the playoffs, in the Finals,” said Derrick White. “I’m looking forward to it, and I know everybody else loves playing in front of this crowd.”

In Sunday’s game at San Francisco, the Celtics were seeing green, and it wasn’t their team uniform. The players were seeing a lot of Draymond Green, the power forward for the Warriors was physical and his aggressive play rattled the C’s a bit.

Green changed the tone of the series by pushing and trash talking his way through the Celtics lineup. Perhaps the most animated for the Celtics in game two was Head Coach Ime Udoka, who admitted after that he purposely drew a technical foul when Green really started getting physical with his players. For game three at the garden tonight, Udoka said he is looking at different lineups and situations to help secure a win in front of the home crowd.

“Part of it going into it was shaving Al’s minutes down after some major minutes in the last series, and then a chance to reevaluate rob as we went so those are things that played into some of the first few games but those are also some of the things for adjustments in lineups and rotations,” said Udoka.

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are not known for being trash talkers, Tatum is a little more quiet. Both players talked about how they are going to handle Green in game three in front of the home crowd.

“In today’s game you got to understand certain people are trying to do, take you off your game but I love that part, whether I show it or not,” said Tatum.

“Don’t get caught up in that,” said Brown. “Just do what we do best. We ain’t got time for that. Just come out and play basketball. And let everything take care of itself.”

To match Green’s intensity, we could perhaps see Marcus Smart, the defensive player of the year who is also known for his physicality, step it up and get the teams and the fans going.

As for injuries, Rob Williams has been dealing with a knee injury for much of the season. He’s listed as questionable on the injury report, but Udoka says he is ok.

If you watched the Celtics during the playoffs, chances are you’ve seen or at least heard of Deuce Tatum, the 4-year-old son of Celtics star Jayson Tatum. Deuce has been on the court, in the locker room and at press conferences.. Jayson said 2017 was a big year for himself: he was drafted in the NBA and had a child. Tatum said he wanted to not only serve as a role model for his son, but also to show young fathers that they can do both. They can be present at work and in their child’s life.

“My mindset was not to sacrifice either, that I was going to be the best father that I could, that I was going to be the best basketball player,” said Tatum. “And there was no guideline or there was no exact way to do it. It was all about what was natural.”

Tatum says it’s fun to grow up and go through this journey together with his son.

Celtics gear up for game 3, Tatum talks fatherhood as an NBA player

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