Jayson Tatum has message for critics after Celtics’ Game 2 loss to Cavs

The Boston Celtics looked completely flat in their home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, but Jayson Tatum does not seem all that concerned about the disappointing performance.

After they dominated the Cavs with a 25-point victory in Game 1 on Tuesday, the Celtics were blown out by nearly the same margin in their 118-94 loss in Game 2 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The poor showing led to some talk about how the Celtics will not be able to get over the championship hump if they lose focus the way they did on Thursday.

Following the game, Tatum had a message for some of those critics.

“We get it, right? The world thinks we’re never supposed to lose. We’re supposed to win every game by 25. It’s just not gonna be like that all the time,” Tatum said. “We don’t expect it to be easy. This is a good team we’re playing. It’s the second round of the playoffs, so it’s gonna be fun the rest of the series and especially come Saturday. We’ve bounced back plenty of times. I think we lost 16 games this year, so I like to think that we responded pretty well the times that we did lose.”

Tatum was then asked if fans might be spoiled after the way the Celtics played during the regular season. He said some of the narratives don’t match the credit Boston receives — or lack thereof.

“The idea that we have a super team, it’s two-fold, right?” Tatum said. “We didn’t have the Coach of the Year. We didn’t have the MVP. We only had two All-Stars, so you can say we’re a super team, but we didn’t get rewarded like we are.”