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‘This isn’t a team that’s just going to lie down,’ says Boston’s Grant Williams ahead of a potential Heat closeout tilt in Game 6

justin quinn
·4 min read
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The Boston Celtics could very well punch their ticket to the 2022 NBA Finals with a win against the Miami Heat in Game 6 of their East Finals series with the Jimmy Butler-led squad, but to do it, they will have to defeat a team full of proud veterans who will not go quietly into the night.

Aware that the series is not yet over and that, even in their currently hobbled state, the Heat are still a team that can rip a win right out of the hands of a team that does not respect them, Boston’s Derrick White and Grant Williams both had words about the job ahead after practice on Friday.

“We don’t want to give them life,” explained White.

“Closeout games are the toughest games,” he explained. “We know they are going to come out and up their physicality and do things that they need to do to stay in this series.”

“You can’t relax and think it’s over — they are not going to give up, we have got to be ready to go.”

In response to comments already placing the Celtics in the Finals with the Golden State Warriors after the Dubs closed out the Dallas Mavericks the night before, White had some words as well.

“It’s just the nature of the game. You lose one game, they think you’re done. You win one game, they think you are going to win it all. So, we’re just trying to stay consistent, not get too high and not get too low, to not really listen to that. That stuff doesn’t matter.”

“Miami is a great team,” he added. “We can’t look past them.”

Williams had a similar perspective on the Heat. “You can’t look past the team at any stage,” he suggested. “You can’t think about the next game before you take care of the one that you’re focused on.”

“For this team, especially, this is a team that’s going to come out and give you their best shot and their best punch. And you have to be willing to withstand that and also compete through it because this isn’t a team that’s just going to lie down. They don’t have guys like that on their team. So for us, it’s a matter of understanding that today is the most important day for us; you can’t look past it. You want to take care of this on your home court and you want to make sure that now you come out with the right intensity but you come out engaged because you don’t want to give any life to a team that may be dealing with injuries and everything like that.”

‘You don’t want to give them any chance to have that exuberant step to come back and hopefully bounce back,” Williams said.

“So for us, we were in that position last area. So we understand the intensity and physicality and everything that you have to play with and expect to see.

So for us, it’s just a matter of how we’re going from … the hunter to the hunted. So, we have to do a great job of adapting to that and being consistent in our own mentality.”

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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