It’s a must win, for sure
C’s can’t go back to Cleveland down 3-2
Technically, the Celtics can lose Game 5 at home and still win the series. Not really.
After watching what the Cavaliers did to the Celts in Cleveland, and what the Celts did to themselves, one would need dogmatic loyalty and maybe even a trip to the liquor cabinet to believe the Bostonians could stave off elimination in a Game 6 on the banks of the Cuyahoga River.
The Cavs looked ready for divorce on Causeway Street, but, with help from the C’s, they renewed their vows at home.
So tonight is looking rather Game 7-ish for the Brad Boys. The best-ofseven Eastern Conference finals are even at 2-2, yet the Celts’ backs are against the TD Garden wall.
Marcus Smart agreed with the bottom line, though he disputed the geographical implication.
“It definitely is a mustwin for us,” he said late Monday night as the visitors’ dressing was just about cleared. “But it’s not because it’s difficult for us to win here. It’s because it’s the playoffs. It’s difficult wherever you go. You’ve got to come ready to play. And if you don’t, things happen that you don’t want to happen. So no matter where we’re at, it’s the playoffs. Everything’s amped up. You’ve just got to be ready to go.”
Which is different than ready to leave, which is what the Celtics have looked like in three trips to the Cavs’ gym this season. Quicken Loans Arena has been a house of horror (Gordon Hayward’s injury) and horrible in the Celts’ one regular-season and two playoff games in the joint. They have trailed by 18, 30 and 19 points in the season opener, Game 3 and Game 4, respectively. They have led by four, zero and two points in those affairs.
“I wonder why,” Smart said with a bit of a smirk.
A large part is because LeBron James plays for the Cavaliers, but the Celtics showed in Game 2 (and at other points in their history; Game 7 in 2008 comes to mind) that they could survive that. The greater difference is the Other Cavs shoot in Cleveland like the Celts shoot in Boston. There is a comfort and flow. Shots are released with more confidence and find the familiar strings.
That would seem to be less of a requirement for the far more veteran Cavaliers, but it’s been achingly so for the Celtics.
Missing early dunks and layups on Monday night put them in arrears and brought out their Mr. Hyde. The Celts are good when they play through their offense, move the ball and take advantage of the openings that inevitably come. The Celts are bad when they try to take things on individually. Like, hey, they just scored three hoops on us; I have to make something happen.
No, you don’t. In fact, trying to force something is more likely to lead to three more quick buckets by the opponent.
Smart acknowledged that the Celtics have gotten away from their collective game, especially on the road. Especially in the two games in this series.
“Yeah, we definitely have,” he said. “We took a lot of bad shots. We didn’t make them pay with the switching and the mismatches and things like that. But that’s something you learn from. You watch the film and you move on.”
But when the Celts sit in front of the video screen, they must feel as if they’re watching a rerun. They can get caught playing some hero ball in the Garden, but it’s more prevalent on the road. Remember when they drove into Milwaukee and lost three games by driving into traffic and taking poor shots? Remember Saturday and last night?
The Celtics are prone to getting flustered.
“I mean, I think that’s the case with all teams,” said president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. “When things aren’t going well, the hard thing to do is to maintain your togetherness and, like, trust each other. When things are slipping, individuals try to take it upon themselves to make a play, and they’re all capable of doing that. But I think that’s a never-ending thing in coaching and in playing. It’s a fine line of doing it together, moving the ball. I mean, there’s a lot of times the defense does a great job of taking you away from movement. It’s not just, ‘Oh, the team stopped moving the ball.’ It’s not that simple. There’s a lot more to it. Teams will switch, deny passes, and guys are left to their own abilities.
“That’s why the teams with the best players usually win basketball games, because they can make something out of nothing. Team defensive schemes can take away what you want to do.”
But more often the Celtics have taken away what the Celtics want to do. And
most often that’s happened on the road.
And that brings us back to the critical nature of tonight’s Game 5.
Were the Celts to fall behind in the series, it’s possible on some level that they could return to Cleveland with a what-the-hell attitude on Friday and put the Cavs on their heels. The hosts certainly seemed willing to be challenged in Game 4, but the C’s could never sustain anything to create a real concern.
It’s therefore not exactly win or go home for the season tomorrow night. But win or go back to Cleveland down 3-2 feels a lot like that.