Terry Rozier has been the breakout star for the Boston Celtics in their series against the Milwaukee Bucks. While Giannis Antetokounmpo has shined for the Bucks and Jabari Parker has been frustrated by his lack of use, a makeshift Celtics roster has found two wins on the back of Rozier, who has scored 23 points in both wins.
Many of those points have come in the face of Milwaukee’s Eric Bledsoe, who after Game 2 went out of his way to disrespect the guard by pretending to not know who he was. It was a schtick that Bledsoe continued on Thursday when speaking with the media.
Bledsoe says he’s focused on the Game 3, but he’s not walking back any of his Rozier comments. At the first mention of Rozier’s name, Bledsoe’s response was quick: “Who?”
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) April 19, 2018
But asked Friday about using Bledsoe’s trash talking as motivation and Rozier had a simple answer: if he’s trying to motivate me or get in my head, it’s already too late.
“He can’t motivate me. He don’t motivate me at all,” Rozier said. “Even the negative stuff, you turn on ESPN they don’t, they wasn’t motivating me before the playoffs started. I was already motivating myself. So they was too late.”
Rozier can say he doesn’t care, and Bledsoe can continue to pretend the standout doesn’t exist, but the truth of Game 3 is that motivation doesn’t matter at this point. Milwaukee is the team that has plenty to prove at home on Friday night. Rozier has already made has splash this postseason.
