In the second half of Game 5 against the Miami Heat in the East Finals, the Boston Celtics looked like an entirely different team than showed up not just in the first half of the game, but truthfully, the whole series.
Good defense, good communication, dialed-in offense — all the signs of a team that has designs on staying alive.
Not so in the series’ previous nine halves — what changed?
“I thought we played with great tenacity defensively, and our offence followed suit, but they’re very hard,” opined head coach Brad Stevens after the game. “It’s easy for me to sit up here and say to ‘be at our very best’ and ‘get stops on every possession’. This is a heck of an offensive team, a heck of a well coached team and hard to guard.”
In fairness, it’s important to give the Heat their due. For all the eyeroll action built into the branding of “Heat culture,” it’s not simply a media fabrication.
The Celtics are facing by far their most disciplined opponent of the postseason, and what they lack in recognized talent, they make up for in intangibles.
WATCH: Miami Heat-Boston Celtics 121-108 full Game 5 highlights https://t.co/4M64k9kzvP
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) September 26, 2020
It’s not just Miami who is obsessive about their preparation and execution, though; in fact, Stevens cites this very nature as a reason why Boston responded with its back against the wall.
“We’re prideful; we want to do well,” he explained.
“The four teams that are here are really good; they’ve had great years. They’re also in the arena and on the stage where everybody’s going to be talking about them, and try to dissect them and break them down and all that stuff. So, our deal was to come out play, come out [and] compete, give it our best shot. And I thought we played pretty well in the second half, but we’re going to have to do it again and again, because of the position we’re in, but we don’t get caught up in all that other crap.”
“We’re trying to be our best, we care about competing ,we care about representing our team or organization,” he added. “We care about each other and that’s why you compete.”
Celtics survive as Brown and Tatum power Boston to 121-108 win https://t.co/crcTZggYIl
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) September 26, 2020
Chemistry has been the bond that’s powered this Celtics team through the most chaotic season in league history to wrest a successful season from anticipated mediocrity.
And there’s no reason to think that it should stop any time soon so long as this group continues playing with each other in the way they have all season.
They still need to win Game 6 on Sunday to survive for a Game 7 showdown with a trip to the 2020 NBA Finals as the prize, but it wouldn’t even be the first 3-1 comeback of this postseason (or its second).
And we all know what Kevin Garnett has to say about what can happen when you’re deep in the postseason, playing together.
