MIAMI — Al Horford already knew the quantity off the highest of his head. The Celtics had simply misplaced a disgraceful Game 3 to the Heat on Sunday night time, and the veteran was doing his finest to conjure up perception. But the info had been on his thoughts.
No group in NBA historical past has ever come again from a 3-0 collection deficit to advance, the state of affairs the C’s discover themselves in heading into Tuesday night time’s Game 4.
“We’re not out yet,” Horford mentioned. “It is 3-0. I know what it looks like. I think I saw the other day, 0-149 or something like that. So, we’re not out yet. We’re still kicking. One of four teams that are still kicking.”
The odds are actually lengthy, even longer contemplating how damaged, irreparable and hopeless the Celtics appeared in Sunday’s humiliation. Only three groups in NBA historical past have even compelled a Game 7 after falling behind 3-0, the final being the 2003 Blazers.
The subsequent 12 months, the 2004 Red Sox grew to become the primary group in baseball historical past to beat a 3-0 gap after they did so in opposition to the Yankees within the ALCS, earlier than profitable the World Series.
Could it occur once more in the identical metropolis? It appears extremely unlikely, but it surely did for the Red Sox, too, after they misplaced 19-8 in Game 3.
David Ortiz, no less than, has hope.
“There’d be no better time than this one for that happen,” Ortiz mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday morning at his charity golf match. “If you do it in basketball, it’s got to be the same city. You know what I’m saying.”
“Being 3-0, you’ve got two choices: You either quit or you go back out, and in professional sports, once you get to that point, there’s no way to quit,” Ortiz continued.
Before Game 4 in 2004, Kevin Millar famously mentioned, “Don’t let us win tonight.” Who on the Celtics will make the same rallying cry?
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, a Rhode Island native, acknowledged that the 2004 Red Sox can provide his group some hope.
“I think it’s important to kind of build that perspective and have an understanding,” Mazzulla mentioned. “I think that helps us keep a narrow-minded focus that something like that has been done before. Especially being in this city, it gives us an opportunity to kind of spearhead that identity and that opportunity that we have. I think at the end of the day, that’s how we have to look at it. We have an opportunity, we gotta take it one game at a time.”
The Celtics have been out-played, out-toughed and out-coached within the first three video games. They’ve been embarrassed by a Heat group in search of revenge. Their delight, if they’ve any, is being examined. The finish outcome appears inevitable. But identical to these 2004 Red Sox proved, they consider there needs to be a primary.
“That’s the approach you have to take,” Malcolm Brogdon mentioned. “We still believe we’re the better team. We have not played like it in these three games. But there is always a first.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com