“We got to look in the mirror and man up, and we just got to be better.” Jayson Tatum sent a stern message to his teammates after the Celtics’ brutal Christmas Day loss to the Sixers. But it looks like the superstar’s words did not have much impact on the locker room as they lost yet another game tonight! This time to the Pacers. Sure enough, recent struggles have sparked concerns in the Boston camp, which was evident with Derrick White and Joe Mazzulla’s desperate call for action after the tough loss.

Addressing 3 losses in the last 4 games, White said, “This might be the toughest stretch that I’ve been on since I’ve been here in the Celtics. So, it’s just gonna bring us closer together.” Well, White has been a Celtic for the last three years and he even experienced the high of winning a title last season.

So, the star guard has complete faith in his squad to bounce back amid adversity and tells his teammates to “Just trust the character in the locker room. Those are the type of guys that are in that locker room and those are the type of guys I wanna go to war with.”

Meanwhile, Joe Mazzulla addressed how his team can do a better job of overcoming these struggles, especially limiting guard penetration that hurt them tonight. “We gotta pay attention to the tendencies, number one. And we just have to know where we can help from, number two, and force more kickouts. It starts at the point of attack with our individual defense and moves to our team defense off the ball and knowing where we can help.”

Yes, Tyrese Haliburton had no problem getting inside the paint tonight and finished with 31 points! So, the C’s HC urged Jayson Tatum and Co. to be more locked in on defense to avoid such mistakes in the future.

Derrick White aims to get out of the slump “together” amid Jayson Tatum’s passionate NBA Finals prediction

Way before the season began, JT had faith in his squad to reach the mountaintop once again. Making an appearance on The Jimmy Fallon Show, he was asked who he believed would reach the NBA Finals this year. Sure enough, Tatum quickly responded, “It’s gonna be a rematch. We’re gonna play Dallas again.” Without any hesitation, he boldly claimed that the Celtics were going to conquer the East once again. And judging by the emotions back then, it would’ve been hard to dispute that statement anyway.

Well, Jayson Tatum’s prediction might not come true if their struggles continue.

As of now, the Celtics are second in the East and the Knicks are inching closer to take their spot. Sure enough, White wants them to bounce back before the hole they’ve dug themselves into becomes too big to get out of. “I mean, it’s a long season and we know there’s gonna be ups, there’s gonna be downs. But it’s definitely the aspect of just understanding the potential that we have and just gotta get back to playing the way that we all know we can play. And just do it on a consistent basis. We gotta get out of it together.”

The Boston side will face the Raptors on Tuesday for their next encounter, and the Celtics would likely aim to implement White and Mazzulla’s words into action, hopefully sparking an eye-opening turnaround.