After a difficult stretch of games, the Boston Celtics are beginning to dominate as the reigning champions once again. Tonight, after a sluggish start, they plummeted the newly altered Miami Heat side that was without Tyler Herro. For the Shamrocks, Jayson Tatum continued the pace on his glorious run, scoring a team-high 33 points. However, the game almost swung away from the Celtics, according to Joe Mazzulla.

That does sound odd considering the Celtics won by 18 points. However, Mazzulla is a detail-oriented coach. What he thinks the team “got away with” is the way they ended the second quarter. The Heat went on a 7-0 run, cutting the Celtics’ lead to single digits. “We just have to have a heightened awareness to the details of closing out quarters. That to me is the biggest difference between winning and losing,” Mazzulla commented. And on the sidelines, he was infuriated in the moment with Jayson Tatum for his defensive response after missing a layup.

However, instead of getting glum, Tatum took criticism on the chin and took accountability for his mistakes.

“A lot of it was on me. I think we fouled somebody, two free throws, and then I shot an ill-advised three. They get a leak-out transition and I missed the layup and stab in the backcourt and they, you know, hit the three so, uh, you know, a lot of that was my fault; I put us in some tough positions,” Tatum admitted.

So at halftime, Joe Mazzulla had a talk with Jayson Tatum. Although the Celtics held a slight advantage, the head coach wanted to maintain the benchmark he expected from his players. And he gave the second half to his players to repair their ways. And his talks clearly had an effect on the Celtics.

The Celtics ran the Heat out in the second half

After a little fire under his belly from Mazzulla, Jayson Tatum and the Celtics wanted to make a point. And it took them only the third quarter to drive the game away from Miami’s grasp. They outscored the home team 36-22 in those 12 minutes. The spearhead was Tatum.

Off his 33 points on the night, 20 came in the third quarter. He only missed three of his 11 shots. But even with the game virtually dusted, Tatum’s played much of the fourth quarter. He didn’t expect to, but if that’s a needed task, the two-time Olympic gold medalist didn’t mind doing so.

“I was just trying to stay in in that fourth quarter kind of put the game away. You know I thought it was going to only be an extra two or three minutes; it was a little longer than that but I’m all right,” Tatum told the reporters.

But it wasn’t just Jayson Tatum who played well. The Celtics’ offense looked to be a well-oiled machine. They shot 66.7% from the floor in the third quarter. With such an audacious conversion rate, the Heat were on the back foot. Add to that them holding the home side to shooting just 31.8% in the quarter and it blew Miami into the ground.

Despite the great results in the second quarter, without Joe Mazzulla’s intervention, the third quarter production may not have been the same. The head coach sparked the need for polishing. And that’s let the Celtics keep the momentum alive in the third. Moreover, it brought Jayson Tatum’s devious side out.