Now that we're up 2-0 and need to win at least 1 of 2 games in Cleveland to get a stranglehold on the series, a recurring theme from these playoffs is back : that this Celtics team isn't playing well on the road. See
Brian Windhorst's latest article :
Calling a playoff series over too early is a classic mistake. Simply assuming the Celtics, who haven't played well on the road in the postseason and still have some weaknesses that can catch them, will win two of the next five games is dangerous.
We definitely tend to play better at home than on the road (as our 9-0 record shows) but I feel like this narrative was true against Milwaukee and not so much since. We lost all our road games in the Milwaukee series but if you remember, except for game 3 where we were blown out from wire to wire, we made a huge comeback in game 4 and had a chance to win the game in the closing minutes (and lost by 2 points).
In game 6, we lost by 10 but again, we hung around for most of the game. And then in the Philly series we won game 3 (which could easily have gone either way) and lost game 4 by a little margin but we all know how the refs played this outrageous game.
So what I'm saying is :
- after one terrible game in Milwaukee and not so stellar performances in that series, we've continually improved our play on the road and basically played close games every time since game 4 against the Bucks;
- I know the Cavs and Celtics are very different from last year's teams but we did win on an AB game winner last year so the confidence that we can win in the Q is there (especially for the returning guys such as Marcus, JB and Horford).
- The Cavs have been far from unbeatable at home. They lost game 1 against Indiana and had to pull it out at the end of game 7, and even the freakin' Raptors nearly won game 3 (but LeBron saved Cleveland with a tough game winner).
- The Celtics are already locked in on game 3, know what to expect from the hostile crowd and how a win would be huge. They are also fully aware that they have "only" protected homecourt as they were expect to if they want to win the series.
Are you confident about our road games in this series ?