Celtics have been crushing it on the road, but not at TD Garden. Jayson Tatum says fans deserve better.
"We give up too many easy ones at home," Tatum said.
After beating the Heat at the Kaseya Center for the seventh time in a row and securing the Celtics’ sixth win in seven games, Jayson Tatum seemed reluctant to talk about the success his team is having on the road this season.
Instead, with a matchup with Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox and the San Antonio Spurs set for Wednesday night at TD Garden, Tatum delivered a message for Celtics fans.
“We give up too many easy ones at home,” Tatum said, per NBC Sports Boston “So, we’ve got to make up for it. We’ve got to get back on track at home because we’ve let our fans down too many times this year and sometimes last year, so we owe it to them to play better at home and we’re going to figure it out.”
The Celtics went 37-4 at home last year, en route to a 64-win regular-season and a dominant march through the postseason which ended with them clinching the Larry O’Brien trophy on the TD Garden parquet floor.
Things are different this year. The Celtics are a league-best 22-6 on the road, but they are just 16-10 at home. Except for Toronto, the Celtics road losses have in large part come teams with a legitimate chance at making the playoffs. Cleveland, Indiana, OKC, and the Lakers are all in the top-4 of their respective conferences. Orlando is ninth in the East.
Boston has home losses against Atlanta (twice), Sacramento, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Golden State. Four of those five teams are in ninth place or worse.
“We’ve been struggling this year coming off of long road trips, coming back home, the first game at home,” Payton Pritchard said after a home loss to Dallas last week. “It’s something we’ve got to fix. I don’t know if it’s just the effort side of things.”
Last season was a breakthrough at home, both in the regular-season and the postseason. It’s been a tougher climb this season, but the Celtics seem to be finding their way. They’ve won 10 of their last 14, including recent road victories over Eastern Conference foes New York and Miami.
Tatum, who averaged 36.5 points on 50 percent shooting from the field in the wins over the Knicks and Heat, said he feels like he’s in a good rhythm.
“Just trying to stay aggressive,” Tatum said. “Hopefully I can put two really good halves together. We’re playing well right now. Everybody is contributing. Two big road wins this trip, so it was a great road trip for us.”
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