The Boston Celtics continue to say all the right things.
“Don’t let us win tonight,” Jaylen Brown told reporters Tuesday morning, per The Athletic’s Jay King, some eight hours before a win-or-go-home Game 4 against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
Boston trails the best-of-seven 3-0.
Marcus Smart added, per King: “Don’t let us get one.”
Boston sports fans probably will link that back to the Kevin Millar sentiment from nearly two decades ago. Millar shared the message before the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the rival New York Yankees. Joe Mazzulla said reflecting on that happening would be important for the Celtics.
But should Green Teamers actually trust the C’s? After all, they’ve said the correct things numerous times this postseason. They talked about how they would respond after a letting go of the rope in Game 1, and did the same after losing a second straight game at TD Garden in Game 2. They processed to have a gutless performance in what felt like a must-win Game 3. They’re words have continued to ring hollow given their underwhelming actions.
That’s why Celtics fans should not be confident in this group being the first-ever NBA team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. Well, that’s the biggest reason along with the fact they’ve lost their defensive identity and their offense, which was built around 3-point shooting, now can’t throw a rock into the ocean. The Celtics are shooting a woeful 29.2% from long range this series.
Then there’s the notion that water, at some point, will find its level. That’s what those searching for positivity might say, at least.
Will the Heat, who ranked outside the top 20 in three-point percentage during the regular season, continue to look like the Golden State Warriors and shoot 48% from beyond the arc for the rest of the series? Will they continue to get the same level of contributions from role players like Max Strus (12 points per game on 48% from the field), Gabe Vincent (17.6 ppg on 61% from the field) and Caleb Martin (19.3 ppg on 63% from the field)? Perhaps those reserves will revert closer to their level, Brown admitting the Celtics were allowing them to play above their means.
The Celtics have the talent to beat the Heat in four straight games — four straight Game 7s, really. That’s not the issue. It’s the fact Boston has not played a full 48-minute game and have been out-willed by Miami time and time again. They’ve wilted. And now the C’s have allowed the hard-playing Heat to build their confidence to an undeniable level. In contrast, Miami’s basket is the size of the ocean, as Heat big man Bam Adebayo expressed after a 128-point Game 3.
FanDuel Sportsbook currently has the Heat priced at -1000 to win the series. It indicates how the sportsbook gives Miami a 91% probability to advance to the NBA Finals where it will face the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets. That 91% feels about right, though some will believe even that is too low.
That Celtics have put themselves in a spot with zero room for error. They’ll have to be perfect from here on out. It seems impossible, and it likely is. But it starts with Game 4 on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center.
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