Boston Celtics forwards Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown don't expect their team to repeat its disappointing Game 3 performance when the Eastern Conference Finals resume Monday.
"That [Celtics] team we saw [in Game 3], I'm 100 percent sure it won't be the same team on Monday," Morris said, per ESPN.com's Chris Forsberg. "After watching film, we did a lot of things that caused us to be in the position that we're in. I said before, control the controllables, and we didn't do that."
Morris also commented on his individual performance, saying he "did a s--t job defensively with LeBron [James]" and that the Cleveland Cavaliers star was "too comfortable when I was guarding him."
Brown echoed Morris' sentiment: "I use [Game 3] as fuel. I thought it was embarrassing. Thought we came out, the way I played, the way I performed, how not aggressive I was in the first half, I look at that as fuel to come out in Game 4 and be excited about it and be ready to play and ready to fight."
Both Morris and Brown struggled offensively in Boston's 116-86 defeat Saturday night. They combined to score 19 points on 5-of-16 shooting. They had averaged 16.5 and 23.0 points, respectively, in the Celtics' two wins to open the series.
Defensively, the Celtics allowed Cleveland to make 17 three-pointers, three more than the Cavs had in Games 1 and 2 combined.
James had 27 points, five rebounds and 12 assists, but his 12 field-goal attempts were his most telling statistic. The Cavs didn't need to lean on the four-time MVP to take a high volume of shots to be effective. Instead, all five of Cleveland's starters scored in double figures, which allowed James to be a more efficient version of himself.
The Celtics ranked first in defensive rating (101.5) during the regular season, so Boston will likely have a defensive response in Game 4.
Limiting the impact of the Cavaliers' supporting cast will be one of the biggest factors to determine the outcome of the conference finals.
If Boston can once gain turn Cleveland into a one-man show, then the Celtics should be able to close out the series. Should the rest of the Cavs continue to ease the burden on James, Cleveland will be back in the NBA Finals.
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