NBA Eastern finals
Celtics’ road woes
CLEVELAND – Boston coach Brad Stevens doesn’t care where the game is — home, road — he says he wants his players to play the same way.
And he doesn’t want players to use road games to justify why they didn’t play well.
“I probably haven’t talked about road and home five times with our team,” he said. “It’s about how you play between the lines. Because I think if you start talking about that, then you find excuses in both places.”
While Stevens doesn’t want to make playing on the road a thing — that’s understandable — it is a thing. After Cleveland’s 116-86 victory in Game 3 on Saturday, the Celtics are 1-5 away from TD Garden in the postseason after posting an Eastern Conference-best 28-13 record on the road during the regular season. They are the only playoff team with a better road record than home record.
“We were great in the regular season on the road,” Stevens said. “We were one of the better teams in the regular season. I don’t have an answer for you in the playoffs, but all that is a moot point for us. We have to play well. We have to focus on us and play well and play with more substance.”
Game 4 is Monday in Cleveland (8:30 ET, ESPN), and the Cavaliers are looking to even the Eastern Conference finals series 2-2. The Celtics want to head back to Boston for Game 5 with a 3-1 lead and a chance to secure a spot in the NBA Finals.
The difference between home and road in the playoffs is stark for Boston. The Celtics, who didn’t win in Milwaukee in the first round, shoot 47.1% at home, 40.8% on the road;
38.7% on three-pointers at home, 30.4% on the road. They average 110.1 points at home,
93.2 on the road and allow 98.8 at home and 105.7 on the road.
At home in the postseason, the Celtics score 111.9 points and allow 101.1 per 100 possessions at home and 98.3 and 111.2 on the road.
“It’s just tough playing on the road,” Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum said. “Teams are more comfortable. They’ve got their crowd behind them. They’re used to playing in this gym.”
There’s a reason teams prize home-court advantage. Since
1984, the team with home court wins a series 76% of the time.
Boston center Al Horford said it takes time to learn how to win the road. “At home, you have your home crowd behind you,” he said. “You have a comfort level about you. And on the road, literally it’s just you against everybody else. ... You have to be able to do all the little things in order to have a chance.”