The Boston Celtics are currently trailing the Miami Heat three games to one in their second round series of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, making Wednesday night’s Game 5 a must-win to keep any sort of championship hopes alive.
The veteran Celtics still believe they can pull it off, too, despite the odds not exactly leaning in their favor.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Ray Allen told NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, “but that’s what makes it that much more special if you can pull it off.”
Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, not surprisingly, agrees with Allen’s assessment.
“In our minds, there’s a lot of basketball to be played,” Rivers said after Game 4. “It’s going to be extremely hard, and if we’re not up for that then we’ll lose. But if we’re up for that, I think we can win three games.”
If the Celtics are able to correct what seem to be some pretty correctable mistakes — and execute in late-game situations — there’s certainly no doubt that Boston could force a Game 7 and go from there. Best yet, it seems even Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is worried about Wednesday night’s game.
“What we’re going to face on Wednesday will be our greatest challenge of this season,” Spoelstra told NBA.com. “It will be the toughest thing we have to do up to this point is to put away a champion.”
Be sure and tune in to TNT at 7 p.m. to watch the game as well as cheer on the Celtics so this season doesn’t end in Miami.