Elimination looms for Wizards, Celtics
Winner will play Cavaliers in Eastern Conference finals.
BOSTON — Isaiah Thomas used to imagine what it would be like to play in a Game 7 as he watched some of the NBA’s biggest names cement their legacies on the league’s biggest stage.
The Celtics All-Star will get his first chance to do the same tonight when Boston hosts the Washington Wizards with a trip to the Eastern Conference finals at stake.
While Thomas is anxious for the opportunity, one thing he says he won’t be is nervous. Wizards at Celtics, TNT (series tied 3-3)
“I don’t believe in pressure,” Thomas said. “I’ve worked too hard to be scared of any type of pressure.”
Maybe not. But neither is a Washington team that pulled out a one-point win in Friday’s Game 6, becoming the first home team to stave off elimination on its home floor this postseason. Teams had previously been 0-10 during the 2017 playoffs.
The Wizards will now be trying to be first team in this matchup to win on the opponent’s home floor in 201617. All 10 meetings this season have been won by the home team.
“A lot of guys doubted us winning (Game 6) at home,” Wizards point guard John Wall said. “The last two years we were in the playoffs we lost Game 6 here and we just had a lot of heart.”
Monday’s winner earns an Eastern Conference finals matchup with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, who have been awaiting an opponent since sweeping Toronto on May 7.
For the Celtics, an opportunity to face the Cavs would validate the No. 1 seed that Boston outlasted Cleveland for in the final week of the regular season. It would also be the Celtics’ first trip to the conference finals since 2012, the last such run made by Boston’s since-departed Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
In Washington, the drought has been much longer. The Wizards haven’t been out of the second round since 1979, when the then-Bullets beat the Spurs to advance to the NBA Finals. That series was Washington’s last time in a Game 7.
Game 7 will also — at least for now — settle the score between teams that haven’t hidden their dislike for one another. No franchise has been in more Game 7s than the Celtics (21-8).