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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida: Getting angry did wonders for the Boston Celtics.
Their first win in these Eastern Conference finals came two nights after Marcus Smart unleashed a series of loud and emotional screams from within the Celtics’ locker room, all beginning just seconds after the Miami Heat won to take a 2 -0 leads the series.
That lead is down to 2-1 now, the Celtics played brilliantly in Game 3 and led from wire to wire to bring new momentum to Game 4 of the series on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).
“I’ve always been saying that before you see the rainbow, it has to break in,” Smart said Monday, speaking about the post-Game 2 fight for the first time publicly. “For us, that was a storm that we had to go through. We found our happy place. ”
Now it is Miami’s turn to find a happy place, although an unhappy place would seem more appropriate. The Heat never led in Game 3, they got into a double-digit hole for the third game in a row in this series and fourth in a row overall, and due to a scheduling quirk they can now sit back and cook for three full days off before getting a chance to atone for what went wrong on Saturday.
“Look, there are two teams competing against each other,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “As much as you want to say, ‘Hey, it’s just about us and we just have to do X, Y and Z,’ the Boston Celtics have something to say about it. Likewise, when they’re doing whatever it’s trying to do, we have something to say about it. ”
The Celtics’ anger was not a secret and was shown at least somewhat publicly; Reporters near his locker room heard the commotion after Game 2, with Smart being the one who lit the fuse.
The Heat did not have a visible, or audible explosion, after Game 3, they took Sunday off to rest physically and mentally, then returned to work on Monday with a filming session, court work, and then more meetings scheduled for the night.
“Our spirit is right, our head is right, our energy is there, so I think we are responding in the right way,” Miami wing Jae Crowder said. “We’re just trying to get better and see how we can play a full game, play a full 48-minute game and be as sharp as we can on both sides of the court. That said, I think we take defeat, we take adversity in a good way. And we are still taking it in. ”
Some of the numbers posted so far in the Eastern Finals are beyond staggering. They’re also baffling at the same time, at least from the Celtics’ perspective.
There have been 17 instances where someone scored to give their team a double-digit lead at some point in the first three games of the series; all 17 have been made by the Celtics. The Celtics have yet to be behind by more than eight, have led by as many as 20 and have been in the lead for 75 percent of the first 149 minutes played in this meeting.
But it’s Miami still leading the series, which is why the Celtics are looking to go into Game 4 with the same aggression they took in Game 3.
“I think each game has its own entity, so it is what it is. We’re all on the same schedule, ”Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “We know that we are going to have to play the best game we’ve ever played in Game 4 of this series to have a chance to win. This is how series works. This is how the playoffs work. You have to improve in every game. ”
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