Avery Bradley: Rajon Rondo told teammates Celtics 'gave up' in Game 2
The Boston Celtics are in trouble.
They know it. We know it. The Chicago Bulls know it.
The top-seeded C's are the first No. 1 seed in NBA history to lose the first two games to a No. 8 seed in a best-of-seven series — a format which began in 2003. Head coach Brad Stevens now has a 2-10 playoff record, his team is just two losses away from their third consecutive first-round exit and the Bulls are playing their best basketball of the year.
What's more, after Tuesday night's loss 111-97 loss, Celtics shooting guard Avery Bradley said he heard Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo — who joined Michael Jordan in Chicago's record books with 11 points, 14 assists, nine rebounds and five steals — telling his teammates that Boston had given up.
"I looked around and a few times in the game guys were putting their heads town, getting down on themselves," Bradley told reporters. "As a team, we have to stay together. The other team is looking at that. They're using that as motivation for themselves.
"I could even hear Rondo, like, 'Yeah, they have up. They gave up.' But we never can let a team see that. We have to continue to be positive and go out there and play hard no matter what the outcome is."
MORE PLAYOFFS:
Rajon Rondo revival: Bulls PG makes history in Game 2 win over Celtics
'Take that for data': Coverage of NBA playoffs raises analytics debate
Playoff debuts: NBA veterans, rookies dive headfirst into the postseason
The Celtics, particularly All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas, have been dealing with a difficult and emotional situation following the death of Thomas' younger sister in a one-car accident on Saturday morning. Thomas played in both games, but plans to travel home Wednesday to be with family before Friday's Game 3 in Chicago.
Bradley, who has been close with Thomas since childhood, says no matter the circumstance, the team can't make any excuses.
"Obviously it's heavy on everyone's heart what happened to Isaiah and his family and we're there for Isaiah, but we can't continue to say that's the reason (for these struggles)," Bradley said. "We just want to be there for him, continue to be there and play hard. At the end of the day, we should want to play hard for each other and for him. We can't sit there and keep saying, 'Oh, we're down because too much is going on.' We have to play hard no matter what.
"You go through a lot throughout a season. You're going to face a lot of adversity and the best teams overcome any type of adversity. And that's what type of team we need to be."
