Celts get show on the road
Where it came together
CHICAGO — The Celtics have played their best basketball of the first-round series on the road, escaping elimination thanks to their ability to win Games 3 and 4 in the United Center.
Wednesday’s Game 5 win on friendly hardwood was a more difficult slog. But when the Celtics returned to the United Center for a practice last night in advance of tonight’s Game 6, that comfortable sense of isolation set back in.
It’s not a coincidence that the Celtics tied with Toronto this season for the best road record in the Eastern Conference at 23-18.
Jae Crowder smiled and nodded at the suggestion the Celtics are actually a better team on the road — a good feeling now that the C’s can close out the series tonight.
“I feel like we are, to be honest with you,” he said. “Because we come together a lot. It’s just us on the road. I had a good feeling in my heart when we came down here down 0-2 that we would come together and give ourselves a chance to win Game 3. And that’s what happened. But I just felt like we needed to get away from the stuff that was going on back home and just let it just be us in a battle by ourselves. . . . when you have to stick together to get a win.”
It’s almost as if the team rebounds once it jets to another city. Combined with the sense of desperation they brought into Game 3 — and Al Horford later admitted they were indeed a desperate team — the Celtics have hit harder.
“It’s just us out on the road,” said Crowder. “I had a good feeling in my heart that we would come together even more as a team. And that’s what we’ve done.
“I think we’ve tried to ride that momentum on to take it back home (Wednesday). But I think — I knew — just coming back into Chicago and just letting it be us, and focusing on what we have to do with just us in the building, rooting for one another, would help us.”
Avery Bradley has another way of looking at the Celtics’ comeback via three straight wins after losing their first two games at home.
“I think the key has been playing consistent,” he said. “The first two games we obviously were a little emotional and we weren’t playing team basketball out there. We were kind of just playing free and not executing our plays on both ends of the floor, our game plans. I feel like once we were able to slow down and focus on what we needed to do as a team, on every detail, we were able to play a lot better.”
For Crowder, this is proof the Celtics never doubted they would climb out of that early 0-2 hole in the best-of-seven series.
“I wouldn’t say doubt. I just felt like we had to figure it out,” he said. “We just hadn’t figured it out yet. But in the playoffs you have to figure it out pretty fast, because if you get down 0-3 it’s pretty much over. But I just felt like we had to figure it out. I knew we had to come together a little bit more. I think we were a little separated there. A lot of guys were not on the same page. But we got it together and all five guys on the court were able to be on the same page. And we just rolled the momentum out.”