Boston Celtics hope homecoming sparks NBA Finals boost

• The Celtics and Warriors are tied 1-1 in the best-of-seven championship series heading into Wednesday’s game three at Boston Garden.
• Jayson Tatum, a forward for the Boston Celtics, emphasizes limiting turnovers.
• Derrick White stated that the Celtics were dissatisfied with their performance in the third quarter against the Warriors.

The Boston Celtics are desperate to reduce turnovers and avoid third-quarter slumps in the NBA Finals and hope that returning home will spark a performance revival.

The Celtics and Warriors are tied 1-1 in the best-of-seven championship series heading into Wednesday’s game three at Boston Garden.

Read more: Stephen Curry stars as Warriors downs Celtics to level NBA Final series

Sunday’s game two resulted in a 107-88 victory for the Warriors, who capitalized on 33 points off 19 turnovers and a big third quarter to avenge Boston’s victory in game one.

“Didn’t give ourselves a chance with a lot of those turnovers,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “We weren’t strong with the ball. For us that was a little disappointing.”

The Celtics are 5-4 at home and 8-3 on the road in the playoffs, but star Jaylen Brown is ready to forget such statistics.

“We’ve got to come out and play our best version of basketball,” Brown said. “We can’t let stuff that’s happened in the past affect our mindset going forward.

“We’ve just got to come out and do a better job taking care of the basketball.”

Read more: Golden State Warriors look to even series in game 2 against Boston Celtics

The Celtics must avoid falling into third-quarter deficits as they have in their first two games in San Francisco.

“We’ve got to come ready to play, come ready to meet that physicality on both ends,” Brown said. “We’re not a perfect team, but we’ll figure it out going forward. We’ve just got to play for 48 minutes.

“We know the Warriors are a third-quarter team. We talked about it. They still came out and were able to go on a run. We’ve just got to be able to answer.”

Jayson Tatum, a forward for the Boston Celtics, emphasizes limiting turnovers.

“They got a lot of points off our turnovers. That’s something we’ve got to be better for next game,” he said. “Throughout the playoffs, the games we have high turnovers result in a loss.

“That’s definitely a point of emphasis. We’re a really good team when we take care of the ball. But we have those lapses where — snowball effect — we pile on turnovers and dig ourselves into a hole.”

Read more: Celtics Stay Focused Entering Game 2, Warriors Remain Loose

Tatum asserts that the intensity of road games improves the Celtics’ performance, but they will now bring the same urgency to the Garden.

“Just playing with a sense of urgency,” Tatum said. “Human nature plays a part when you go on the road. It’s a tough environment.

“We’ve relaxed at home. (Now it’s) just having that sense of urgency, knowing that we’re at home, but that we need to play better at home.”

Derrick White stated that the Celtics were dissatisfied with their performance in the third quarter against the Warriors.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” White said. “It’s easy to talk about, but we’ve got to go out there and change something. We’ve just got to learn from these mistakes that we made and grow from them.”

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