Things can change quickly for an NBA team this time of year.
One minute it’s a colossal failure; the next one is on the threshold of history – that’s the unique position the Celtics are in.
They’ve moved from heavy favorites to playing the role of the underdog, halfway through the greatest comeback in NBA history, but still just one loss away from a series loss that won’t be easily erased.
It will be fascinating to see how their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Heat, continuing Saturday night with Game 6 in Miami, plays out.
After an ugly Game 3 loss put Boston in a 3-0 hole, freshman head coach Joe Mazzulla’s job was thought to be in serious jeopardy.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were criticized for not showing up.
The Celtics were the butt of jokes.
Now they’re being compared to the 2004 Red Sox, gritty champions who ended the Curse of the Bambino and who are revered in Boston as the only team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the ALCS.
Prior to Game 4 of this series, two Celtics, Brown and Marcus Smart, took a page out of the Red Sox playbook.
They told reporters, “Don’t let us get one,” reminiscent of Kevin Millar’s rallying cry, “Don’t let us win today,” after the Yankees won the first three games of that 2004 series. There’s one big difference, these Celtics would cruise, unlike the 2004 Red Sox, who faced bitter rivals they couldn’t get past, until they finally did in that series.
“For some strange reason, even last year, we always seemed to make it a little harder on ourselves,” Tatum told reporters after the Celtics’ 110-97 home win over the Heat in Game 5 on Thursday. “But what I do know is that you can see the true character of a person, of a team, when things aren’t going right, and our ability to come together, figure things out when things don’t necessarily look right for us. us. It’s unlike any team I’ve been on this year and last year, only the core group of guys can respond.
The Celtics’ two dominant wins to dig themselves out of that hole in the 3-0 series is proof that they are the better, deeper and more talented team. It wasn’t by accident that the Celtics were a heavy favorite coming into the series. They would waltz to a second consecutive NBA Finals after passing the 76ers in seven games in the conference semifinals.
But the Celtics can be frustrating. They didn’t play nearly hard enough, or with the necessary focus and willpower, in the first three games against Miami.
They were outnumbered by the less talented Heat, who were without key players Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo. But Boston flipped the switch in the last two games, and it’s no surprise that the result was two wins for a combined 30 points.
The Celtics are halfway to becoming the first NBA team to finish three games in a best-of-seven series. They are one of 15 teams to fall behind 3-0 to force a Game 6 and one win by joining the 1951 Knicks, the 1994 Nuggets and the 2003 Trail Blazers by forcing a seventh game after losing the first three games of a series.
“We had our backs against the wall,” said Brown. “Of course we could not have imagined that we would be in this position, with a 3-0 deficit, but when there is adversity, you see how a team is really put together.
“It couldn’t get any worse than being 3-0 down, but we didn’t look around, we didn’t go in different directions. We have stayed together.”
Much remains up in the air for the Celtics. A loss on Saturday night would take away all the good vibes from the last two games. The discussion would move from the potential of a historic comeback to how and why the Celtics failed to show up at the start of this series.
There’s really no middle ground for the Celtics: Either they’ll become the first team to come down from 0-3 to win a series, or they’ll be remembered as massive underachievers.
Mazzulla may be out of work. Tatum and Brown will face big questions, especially Brown, who has only one year left on his contract.
Pat Riley once said, “There’s winning, and then there’s misery.”
For the Celtics, that line fits like a glove.
The difference between winning the next two games and not getting it done is huge.
They will be immortalized or ridiculed.
