“We were going to kill [in Game 4]”Maybe we wanted to win so much that it took away from what makes us special,” forward Jayson Tatum said at practice Sunday. “Maybe in that moment we put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect or that it would go our way. Joe reminded us today that it's okay to laugh in the middle of a fight, to have fun even in the pressure moments.”
The Celtics will have a chance for a storybook ending when they host Game 5 at TD Garden on Monday, 16 years after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers to win the title in 2008. The franchise's championship history suggests a coronation is on the way, but the Celtics may have to overcome their checkered history on the parquet floor in recent postseasons.
First, the good news: Boston's last three championships (1984, 1986, 2008) came at home following a road loss. In 1984, Larry Bird's team lost Game 6 to the Lakers by double digits but won Game 7. Two years later, the Celtics lost Game 5 to the Houston Rockets by 15 points but swept Game 6. In 2008, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett's Celtics lost Game 5 in Los Angeles but swept the Lakers in Game 6.
Boston won the first two games of these Finals in front of raucous crowds that booed former Celtics guard Kyrie Irving, but the TD Garden stage has engulfed home teams many times over the past decade.
Jaylen Brown's first playoff appearance ended with three straight home losses to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. The following year, Tatum's first playoff appearance ended with a Game 7 loss at home to the Cavaliers in the same round.
Irving's Celtics suffered two humiliating home losses to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals and a blowout loss to Brooklyn in the first round of the 2021 playoffs in head coach Brad Stevens' final home game. That night, Irving, who joined the Nets in 2019, went to center court and stomped on the Celtics' leprechaun mascot. Clearly, the green jerseys and shamrock logo, and the intense scrutiny that comes with them, aren't popular with everyone.
“My first struggle was figuring out how to be a great player. [in Boston] “Winning championships, leading a team, selflessly joining the Celtics organization, or the cult that is here. That's what's expected of them as players. They're expected to seamlessly embrace the Celtics pride, embrace everything Celtics is. If you don't, you're going to be kicked out,” Irving said.
The 2022 Finals were even more painful for the Celtics. They were leading the series 2-1 against the Golden State Warriors before TD Garden turned into a house of horrors. After Stephen Curry stunned Celtics fans with a 43-point performance in Game 4, the Warriors clinched the title with a commanding Game 6 victory in Boston. To add insult to injury, Curry put the Celtics crowd to sleep in the Finals by pointing to his ring finger and saying “goodnight.”
Last year, Tatum scored a playoff career-high 51 points in a Game 7 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, but his familiar demons returned in the Eastern Finals: Boston lost Games 1 and 2 at home to the Miami Heat, then rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to lose 103-84 in Game 7. Tatum sprained his ankle earlier that night, but the Celtics were booed by fans during their season-ending loss.
Boston was 5-6 at home in the 2023 playoffs despite being the higher seed in each round, the expectations of the league's most passionate fanbase creating a home-court disadvantage.
“When I drive around and go to a gas station, or I was trying to get ice cream yesterday, there's Celtics merchandise everywhere,” Tatum said. “You really feel the love and support from everybody in the city of Boston and how much everybody wants us to win and how much they're rooting for us. I don't look at it as pressure, it's just unconditional support and that we have a great fan base here. … When you get into the NBA, you think every franchise is the same, but that's far from the truth.”
Brown argued during the Finals that this year's Celtics are a different team that has learned from past mistakes and benefited from offseason additions Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Boston went a league-best 37-4 at home during the regular season and has won eight of its 10 playoff games at TD Garden. Its most recent home loss was to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the second round on May 9.
One more win and the Celtics will be able to fully move past James, Irving, Curry and the bitter memories of the Heat.
“We're trying to accomplish what we set out to do at the beginning of the season,” Brown said. “Right now, it's not hard to get everybody in the locker room on the same page.” [If] We're going to do it together and we're going to fight like our lives depend on it, and I think we're going to be OK.”