"More meaningful to you guys than it was to us": Star Downplays Importance of Big Loss

Plenty of people are looking at the Golden State Warriors blowout win over the Boston Celtics as a sign of two teams going in opposite directions: the underperforming Warriors finally finding their groove, and the red-hot Celtics finally falling to earth. At least one person isn’t interested in making a big deal out of a single game: Boston forward Jayson Tatum. The 24-year-old star offered the following quote to the media after the 123-107 loss:

“Tonight was probably more meaningful to you guys than it was to us. It’s one game. We want to win every game we play but it’s tough. You never want to lose. We’ve been playing well and to lose this one, - especially the way we played is tough- but it’s not going to dictate our season. We’ve had a great season so far and we lost the game. It’s all about how we respond.”

Tatum has been having an MVP-caliber season in leading the Celtics to a 21-6 record, but he put up a dud on Saturday, with just 18 points on 6-for-21 shooting. As he said to the media though, there’s plenty of games left to play in the regular season, and even if this loss brought back some ghosts of last year’s NBA Finals, their demolishing of the Phoenix Suns just one game ago should take some of the pressure off.