Meanwhile, in the Celtics' spacious, luxurious home-team locker room.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla furrowed his brow.
He was also trying to rally the players.
He knew that when they were down by 26 points, tactical adjustments wouldn't make much difference. The most important thing was morale.
Especially given the disparity in the teams' Paper Strength, if he could just fire up the players, they could quickly erase the deficit.
For him, rallying the players was fairly simple.
He took a marker and rapidly wrote two numbers on the board.
One was 88, the other 62.
Then he tapped the whiteboard and said to the players:
"Twenty-six points. That's the gap between us and them!"
"That's the lead Wang's third-string Raptors have over us!"
"Are you ashamed?"
The players all lowered their heads.
Mazzulla continued:
"I don't know if you're ashamed, but I'm ashamed!"
"I led the Celtics' starting lineup, and we couldn't even beat the Raptors' third string. I'm deeply ashamed. I even feel like I'm insulting the coaching profession. I've let the Celtics name down!"
The players lowered their heads even further.
Mazzulla continued:
"So if we can't close the gap in the second half, if we can't turn this game around, then every one of our names will be nailed to the Celtics' pillar of shame!"
At that, he paused.
Then he continued:
"So I want us to get fired up in the second half. I want to take this damn game back. I don't fucking want to lose to the Raptors' third string. I fucking want to win! What about you?!"
The players all raised their heads.
Tatum, the team's leader, was the first to speak up. "I want to win!"
Brown joined in beside him. "I want to win!"
Then the rest of the players