With the regular season coming to an end and teams vying for playoff spots, Jayson Tatum was already aware of the opponent the Celtics will face in the opening round. Tatum reasoned that the two East rivals would meet, even if the Heat had to win the play-in tournament in a particular order.

Tatum’s prediction that the Celtics will play the Heat in the playoffs for the third consecutive year wasn’t the only one. He was genuinely hoping for that chance. And no, it had nothing to do with his desire for vengeance for the prior year. Instead, it was all about the Celtics’ perspective going into the playoffs.

“I wanted to play Miami because I think we might have relaxed a little bit last year against Atlanta,” Tatum stated. “But regardless of the seed, we were going to have to be ready to play, ready to fight, knowing Miami’s history, how hard they play, and how well-coached they are.”

In Game 5, the Celtics easily defeated the Heat to win the first-round series. This was an example of their maturity. Yes, the Heat’s historic shooting night in Game 2 was the reason for their slip. However, the Celtics outperformed the Heat in each of their four victories, winning the series 4-1.

Although the Heat had a shortage of players during the series, the C’s have experienced this in the past as well. There have been times, as Tatum indicated, when they let their guard down and underestimate their opponents. This series, the Celtics outscored the Heat by 78 points over the course of five games, so there wasn’t much cause for concern about it.

Tatum stated, “We should be applying what we have learned from our mistakes and what we could have done better to the next season, which we are doing this year.” “Because our goal is to achieve a different result than we have in the past.”

Despite the Celtics’ defeat in Game 2, the NBA’s top seed remained relatively calm. The C’s maintained their composure in the face of some outside overreactions, even if there were undoubtedly some. Against a depleted, overmatched Miami team, the Celtics saw minimal opposition in their last three games.

The Celtics can now concentrate on their opponent in the second round, which could be either the Magic or the Cavaliers. Interestingly, their earliest possible home game would be on Sunday. Thus, the Cs will be able to take some crucial days off to recover physically. They can also make more adjustments to their squad now that Kristaps Porzingis will be out for some time. They earned the honor by defeating the Heat with relative ease.

Jaylen Brown remarked, “It’s good that we did our work early.” We’ll settle with five, although I wish it could have been four. Reset your mind and concentrate on the next task. determining what areas you can keep getting better at. Of course, there are things we can tidy up. You just have to wait for the next round of the playoffs, and I will undoubtedly clean up some items moving forward.