The Boston Celtics fell to a 2-0 series deficit at the hands of the Miami Heat. While Boston was one of the hottest teams in the bubble, they allowed the Toronto Raptors to fight their way to a Game 7 against them.
They have now dropped two consecutive games in the Conference Finals.
Marcus Smart is screaming at someone in the Celtics locker room — or several people. The yelling continues as Smart exits the locker room, swearing.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) September 18, 2020
ESPN reported that there was a massive fight in the Boston locker room after the Game 2 loss. They pointed out that Marcus Smart was yelling at his teammates. Despite members of the Celtics downplaying the issue, there is a clear disconnect between the players.
However, was Smart right for dressing his teammates down like that? Here is what we think.
Boston Celtics: Unraveling or healing?
You cannot say Smart was wrong for what he did. Every locker room has its moments of tension. Many players would argue that locker rooms that don’t argue are the ones that don’t win.
Evidently Smart was heated at how the Celtics let the game slip, while also not appreciating the backlash he received on a poor three-point shot. It’s a high-stakes game and tempers are bound to boil over.
However, the larger concern would be what Brad Stevens’ role in this situation was. Stevens has long been regarded as one of the better coaches in the NBA for leading Boston to multiple successes.
However, he failed to influence the locker room positively during the Kyrie Irving conundrum. Now he is taking a backseat, yet again, while players like Smart are getting into heated confrontations with teammates.
A coach’s job is to nip dissent like this, so it will be interesting to see how he helps his locker room reunite.
ESPN Sources: Brad Stevens had a late night Thursday meeting with Celtics leaders – Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart – to work through emotions of post-Game 2 locker room. A lot of yelling in locker room, but nothing escalated to a physical confrontation.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 18, 2020
Boston are a young team, but have been together for a while now. Outside newer additions like Kemba Walker, the team has shared a lot of heartbreak over the course of the last few seasons. They have come close again but will hope to finally break the hump and see their first NBA Finals since 2010.
Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte will battle each other once again inside the ring. Following his devastating knockout loss on August 22, Whyte has been adamant about getting the rematch.
No wonder Matchroom boxing has immediately set it up for him. However, Queensberry Promotions CEO claimed that he would have never booked Dillian Whyte so early if he was managing him. As per Frank Warren, Whyte was knocked out cold in the fight, and arranging an immediate rematch is not a very good idea.
However, it will not affect Matchroom’s mindset as they are ready to stage the rematch on November 21.
Frank Warren is not a fan of Dillian Whyte vs Alexander Povetkin 2
In an interview with Seconds Out, Warren said that Whyte shouldn’t be fighting so soon. Instead, he claimed that the doctors and medical experts to be the perfect administrators to make the call.
That still doesn’t change that Warren would have never allowed his boxers to do that.
“If it was me, if I was managing Dillian Whyte, I wouldn’t do that. I would wait. You know… he needs some rest, “ said Warren.
Taking about Whyte’s loss, Warren detailed the encounter and cited how deadly it was.
“He was stopped on his feet, but he was stopped. He was concussed, he was out cold, he was given oxygen. So you know, it’s not something I will be doing, but it’s not me, that’s their choice.”
Meanwhile, Matchroom will benefit a lot from the inevitable rematch between two of the biggest heavyweight gladiators. The sudden change in the WBC heavyweight title mix has shaken the entire boxing community.
That said, Whyte can validate his mandatory title claim by getting a win against Povetkin on November 21. Considering the first fight, Whyte was dominating his Russian rival throughout, securing two early knockdowns in the fight.
However, a slick uppercut was all that Povetkin needed to grab the WBC interim belt. He will look for another such moment in the rematch, while ‘The Body Snatcher’ will give it all inside the ring.
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The second Grand Slam of the makeshift tennis calendar, French Open is just a few days away. As we approach the clay major, tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has named his favorites to challenge Rafael Nadal for the title in Paris.
In conversation with Tennis Majors, Mouratoglou named US Open 2020 Champion Dominic Thiem and World No.1 Novak Djokovic as the ones who could challenge, and potentially beat, Rafael Nadal at the French Open.
“I think that we have two guys that can beat Nadal, which was never the case before.”
Patrick Mouratoglou on why Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem can beat Rafael Nadal at French Open 2020
Mouratoglou mentioned that Djokovic is playing the best tennis of his career. He also pointed out the fact that Nadal is coming into the French Open with much less match practice than Djokovic.
“The first one is Novak because I think that Novak is playing the best tennis of his career at the moment, he’s beaten Rafa several times on clay, many times actually. Even though in Roland-Garros has always been a different story, but he has beaten him so many times and he’s very confident and Rafa is coming to Roland-Garros with only a few matches.”
Speaking about Dominic Thiem, Mouratoglou suggested that Thiem is now brimming with confidence after his US Open triumph. Hence, Patrick expects the Austrian to be physically and mentally ready to challenge for French Open.
“And then we have of course Dominic Thiem, who is an incredible clay-court player, who has a lot of matches behind him. He has so many matches under his belt, so he’s really extremely confident, with winning the US Open, and with a lot of matches, and physically extremely ready.”
Will Rafa get enough match practice?
Thiem will go into the French Open as a Grand Slam champion and a two-time runner-up in Paris. In the past few years, Thiem has fallen short of defeating Nadal in the finals. And while Djokovic has beaten the Spaniard a fair few times on clay, he has only managed to beat Rafa once on the Parisian clay.
As Mouratoglou mentioned, Thiem and Djokovic will go into the 2020 French Open with enough matches under their belts since the resumption. Hence, should Nadal struggle with rustiness at the Grand Slam, Djokovic and Thiem could very well pounce and challenge him for the title.
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