Brad Stevens was interviewed after the Celtics were eliminated by the Brooklyn Nets, 123-109. On Jayson Tatum’s growth and development on the season, Stevens said “I think he handled it as well as you could possibly handle it. I mean the amount of attention that he’s getting throughout the whole season but certainly in the last couple games is really hard to operate under. They’ve got a lot of smart player. Kevin Durant is is all over him with great length and ability to challenge shots and Jason just continuously found ways to make plays. I thought that he did a really good job, I mean I obviously…we didn’t do enough as a team tonight to be successful but I think he showed a lot of mettle this year when you consider what he went through with COVID, what he went through with coming back from COVID and then the level he went to at the end of the year.”
On potential changes with the team looming on the horizon, Stevens said
“…This team that beat us is a very good team, there are very good teams across the east and we’re going to have to get better. We never got a true look at this team this year but I think we have enough information that shows that we need to get better.”
On challenges improving in a competitive conference, Stevens said “There’s a lot of work ahead…we’ve been fortunate, we’ve been in the mix for the last couple years prior to this, at least, playing as one of the last four teams playing and three of the last four prior to this. But this is the east, it has improved but we have some really good foundational people in our building and so, we can get better and we we will go through all those avenues to get there”
