I'm not sure where all of this hostility towards the crowd is coming from.
I work less than 1.5 miles from the Garden, and I left for the game at 6pm. It usually takes me 15 minutes to park and another 10 minutes to get into the game.
Because of the Red Sox game and some absolutely horrible traffic, I barely made it into the game by tip off. Traffic and the line out front was worse than when we were in the finals two years ago.
I hope some of the people attacking the fans have some clue of what it looked like outside of the Garden 15 minutes before game time. The line to get in ran all the way down the block. It was so backed up they were letting people use the private entrance for Premium seating, and that had a line that wrapped around the other side of the building towards the pro shop.
It was an angry zoo out there, with people mad they might miss the game because the line wasn't moving.
So where is this "you're not a real fan unless you leave work two hours early to get to the game" coming from. There were thousands of angry people outside because they couldn't get into the game right away, because of the traffic and the line. Then people come on line and attack them for not knowing it was going to be a disaster in front of the Garden? I'm pretty sure a "real fan" isn't someone who attacks other fans when the team loses.
As to the atmosphere during the game: I didn't have any problems with the fans. I was in the loge, pretty close to the court, and our section was on their feet for a lot of the game. Even late in the game, if the Celtics hit a three or back to back baskets, the whole section was up and screaming.
But you know what, almost every single time the Celtics made a big play, the Cavs came back with a three or a offensive rebound for a basket. That kept the crowd quiet more than anything else. Go to Utah, Cleveland, or anywhere else... if the other team keeps making big plays, the crowd gets quieter. The section I was in looked like they were doing jumping jacks: stand up, cheer, see the Cavs make a big play, sit down grumbling about LeBron... repeat over and over.
The crowd was loud and supportive, but the Celitcs never could even string together three plays in a row to build up the momentum.
One other thing that was very weird. I hate the jumbotron and a lot of the "entertainment" during the timeouts, but for some reason this game was like the Garden staff took the night off. There were a lot of timeouts with nothing but quiet music and a logo being shown up on the Jumbotron. There was not a lot being done to try and get the crowd loud about anything. I can't remember ever going to a game where they didn't even try to get the crowd going through some of the timeouts. Either there were technical problems, or they were told not to rile up the crowd.
By the fourth quarter, it almost felt like the people operating the jumbotron had left. I'm not sure that is a bad thing... but why change it during the playoffs. They were so out of synch, when the game ended they started to play the music hey play for "Gino". it ended quickly, but it seemed like someone was asleep at the switch.
It was a bad night for just about everyone who went to the game, except for the Cavs and their fans (and there were a lot of them at the game). Lets stand together instead of making it worse by trying to find a way to blame the fans.