Jayson Tatum: “We don’t do this s*** on purpose, I promise you!”

Steph Curry led the Warriors to a 107-97 win in Game 4 of the NBA finals at TD Garden on Friday to level the series 2-2 ahead of Monday’s matchup at the Chase Center. The Celtics trailed by just one point in the third but froze up during the final quarter, managing just two shots in the last seven minutes, giving the Dubs free rein to storm to a 21-6 run and take the game. Jayson Tatum was philosophical about the defeat when he spoke to reporters afterwards, and stressed that he and his team mates don’t expect these finals to be a stroll in the park.

“It’s tough. You gotta give them credit, they played well. They made some big shots. We obviously felt we had put ourselves in a position to win the game and there are a lot of things that we wish we could have done differently - especially in the offense, I think we just got way too stagnant, late in the fourth - from everybody. But, it’s a new series, so the best of three. Get some sleep and get on this long-ass flight tomorrow…” Tatum, who led the Cs with 23+11+6, said afterwards.

All square

He laughed off suggestions that Boston make life harder for themselves, adding, “I mean, we don’t do this s*** on purpose, I promise you we don’t! We try as hard as we can but there are certain things that we’ve got to clean up - turnovers, movement on the offensive end... We would have liked to have won today but this is the finals and in the art of competition, they came here feeling that they had to win. It wasn’t easy. But that’s kind of the beauty of it - it’s not going to be easy and it shouldn’t be. We both want it and we’ve gotta go and take it”.

Tatum has been shooting an average of 34% from the field during the series and is the first to admit that he needs to up his game. “When I do have space, I’m hoping I gotta take the shot. obviously. Any time I hold it too long, they load up and things like that. So just quick decisions, don’t turn down any open looks - any daylight that I have. And just try to make the right pass - I think just make quicker decisions. “It’s just making the right play, throughout the course of the game, and not necessarily just standing, you know sometimes we get it, and we all did it at times, we just gotta move - I think that’s where we are most effective but it’s hard to move the ball when we are just standing there,” he explained. “I’m impacting the game in other ways but I gotta be more efficient - shoot the ball better, finish at the rim better. I take accountability for that. I’m just looking forward to Monday and leave this one behind us”.

Boston travel to San Francisco for Game 5, which tips off at 9pm ET at the Chase Center.