Lots of teams that go up two games to none will lose the thrid game.  In fact, that's the way every 2nd round series has gone thus far.  The Pistons, Lakers, and Hornets all won the first two at home and dropped the 3rd game on the road.  The difference between those teams and the Celtics is that they all won road games in the first round.  So if the Celtics lose this game, it won't be seen as just one game.  It will be seen as a troubling trend.  If they lose the next two, it will be a major story. 

As Christopher Gasper of the Globe states:

Failure to win at least one of the next two games will raise questions about Boston's championship credentials. The optimistic Celtics fan will point out that if Doc Rivers and Co. win all their home games in the playoffs, they'll be NBA champions, but few expect banner 17 to be raised to the rafters unless the Celtics find a way to get some victories as visitors.

"Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes," said Celtics captain Paul Pierce. "Basketball is all about learning from past mistakes. We fumbled a couple games down in Atlanta, so we're going to look at that to see what we can do better, especially on the road. The main part about playing on the road, we've got to bring a lot more energy to the game from the start. The energy we've had on the road, it's not high enough. [In the] playoffs you've got to take it to another level."

It's not as if the Celtics don't know how to win away from home. During the regular season, they posted the NBA's best road record (31-10). The biggest difference in Boston's play on the road during the postseason has been defense. The lockdown defense that has held LeBron James to 8-for-42 shooting in the first two games and Cleveland to 33.1 percent often hasn't made the trip with them.

You can't call this a "must win" when the team is up 2 nil.  But this is one of those "show me" type games.  They have an opportunity here to silence some critics and to take major control of the series.  They will be facing a highly motivated, highly energized Cleveland team fighting for the chance to stay in the series.  If they can put them away, we can say that they learned from their first round adventures with the Atlanta Hawks.  Otherwise, we'll have a lot more to talk about on the blog in the coming days. 

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Comments (7)

clover said:

I'm greedy, I want these guys on a roll with some built-up momentum for the next two series--so I really want to see them seize these two games in Cleveland.

May 10, 2008

wdleehi said:

Like I said else where, the Celtics are going to here little but "you guys can't win on the road". Motivation and this team is always a good thing. Just think about the last time this team was told it was going to struggle on a road trip. The results, they swept the Texas Triangle. They will win one of these next two games and finish the series out in game 5.

May 10, 2008

tb727 said:

I have a lousy feeling the Celts will lose handily tonight. Obviously i really hope I'm wrong. With that being said it'd be monumental for their confidence to get one of these two games. That's really all I want, is to return to Boston up 3-1 and finish this in 5.

May 10, 2008

KJ33 said:

"So if the Celtics lose this game, it won't be seen as just one game. It will be seen as a troubling trend. If they lose the next two, it will be a major story." If this is indeed the case, it will be absurd. We just saw how all the other teams lost Game 3 on the road, that is the most likely scenario to unfold in this series as well. The % of times teams get swept when going down 3-0, is astronomically high, so every Game 3 when the home team is down 2-0 becomes the game where they literally play for their playoff lives. What any other team, or even the Celtics, did in the first round on the road is completely irrelevant at this point, there is absolutely no connection. The Celtics played the Hawks, and lost at Atlanta, in a series that is now over, any dynamic from that series was related only to that series, there is no carryover to a different team and a different city. While I agree that if it comes back to Boston 2-2, it will be covered as a major story by the media and decried by the Chicken Littles on this site, the bottom line is we will have Game 5 at home in THIS round, whether we swept Atlanta and won 2 road games, or it went to 7 having lost 3 games on the road as it did, will not affect the players whatsoever. You don't go 31-10 on the road, the best in the league, and then start thinking you can't win there because your very worthy opponent, in this round, did nothing more than hold serve. This is why you work hard all season to get home court advantage in the first place, there is virtually no pressure on the Celtics players, not the fans and the media, to HAVE to win on the road until and unless they lose at home. Having won or not in Atlanta in the previous round, has no bearing on whether or not the Celtics will win in Cleveland these next 2 games.

May 10, 2008

NoraG1 said:

KJ33 thank you for stating the truth. It is really annouying to hear we 'have' to win on the road. It would be easier but certainly not mandatory. This team got homecourt and they are taking advantage of it. Lakers just lost on the road so did most teams this round. It would be unfair to condemn the Celtics this round if they fall in line with every other team and lose one.

May 10, 2008

EJPLAYA said:

They will likely lose tonight due to the fact that Cleveland is a good team and teams usually win that third one if they are going to win one. There is no way we sweep the Cavs, so we need to keep this from being a blowout and make them earn it, and then hit them hard in game 4. Then we win it in 5. If not, this will go 7.

May 10, 2008

billysan said:

Jeff, we are the best team in the league right now. We have been the best team in the league for most of the season. They are all 'must win' games. Sorry, anything less is just making excuses IMO. If we are the best, we need to play like the best every nite.

May 10, 2008