Sixteen years to the day after the Celtics’ last championship, on a day matching Boston’s area code, the team is hoping to finish off the Mavs in the NBA Finals.
The Boston Celtics’ catastrophic performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals gave them a chance to clinch another championship on Monday night under the 17 banners already hanging in the TD Garden rafters.
And, coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them, that they would still have two more chances after that.
“We don’t like to lose,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said before practice on Sunday. “I think we are ready for Game 5. I think that’s the best answer that I’ve got. I think that we’re ready. We’re at home. And we’re looking forward to it.”
The Celtics cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA and then did even better in the playoffs, never trailing in a series while winning 15 of their first 17 games. They opened a 3-0 lead on Dallas, but the Mavericks avoided elimination with a 122-84 victory on Friday night — the third-biggest blowout in Finals history.
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That sent the series back to Boston, where the Celtics will again try to win their unprecedented 18th NBA title — and their first since 2008. In a city that’s collected 12 championships already this century, that’s what passes for a drought.
“This is what we all work for,” Brown said. “We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season. So I think it’s not difficult to get everybody in that locker room on the same page right now.”
TD Garden ticket prices, Boston street closures
For any fans thinking about getting tickets to Monday night's game in hopes of witnessing the Celtics win Banner No. 18, they'll have to shell out a pretty penny.
The cheapest tickets we found were on Vivid Seats. To seat in the Balcony, you'd still have to spend $1,184. In fact we found several sites with tickets around $1,200 a piece.
Now if you want the VIP experience, you can still buy VIP seating, but it’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
StubHub has seats in the VIP Section, Row A going for $31,501 – EACH!
Those cushy VIP seats are already set up around the parquet for Game 5, and they looks pretty amazing, but $63,000 for a pair of tickets? A lot of fans are probably planning to just watch the game on TV, but they can also come down to Canal Street in Boston and take in the party atmosphere right outside the Garden.
The mayor and the Downtown North Association are once again hosting a “car-free zone” in the Boston Playoff Hub.
Fans can gather here before and during the game Monday night, with extended seating for restaurants and bars in this area to give it a real block party feel.
They have the barricades up to block off all of Causeway Street, and adjacent streets to New Chardon Street, starting after the first quarter, so fans can walk around safely. Starting after halftime, people who leave any establishment within that area won't be able to re-enter.
In fact, Boston police have barricades ready all over the area because with the team back at home with a chance to win Banner No. 18, this could be quite the celebration Monday night.
617 Day
"I think it's pretty obvious who's going to win tonight," said Celtics fan Joey Don.
"I think they're going to win it," said Sunny Gill, who traveled from Los Angeles and is visiting Boston for the first time. "I got tickets to Game 5 for a reason. I have a lot of confidence."
And if they do, the win would align with some interesting numbers.
"They're getting ready to come back home be in front of the fans and raise Banner 18 on 6/17, just like they did 16 years ago," said Don.
"The [Boston] area code is 617, as well," Gill noted. "Some things are meant to be."
Tito Horford, a former NBA player and father to Celtics center Al Horford, said the players understand the significance of the numbers.
"They know about 6/17, and I believe they're going to come through," said Horford. "The last time that the Celtics won was in 2008, on 6/17, and now we can repeat the history again."
Alina De Varona is a south end tarot reader. She admits she doesn't know much about basketball, and therefore considers herself an appropriate person to read the tarot on Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and the team.
"The magician," said De Varona about one of the cards she drew. "He's going to bring out all his skills and abilities and he's going to bring it."
And as for the team, she said she thinks Monday will be "the last game."
"The world is the last page of a chapter," she said of two other cards she drew. "So whether we're talking about Jayson or talking about the whole team, this is the world that is closing the chapter and this is victory."
If needed, Game 6 would be Thursday, Game 7 would be Sunday
The Game 4 loss snapped Boston’s franchise-record 10-game postseason winning streak (and also ended Kyrie Irving’s personal 13-game losing streak against his former team). Boston had been 3-0 in potential elimination games so far during these playoffs.
But the Celtics know — and Dallas surely does as well — that they still have three more chances to close out the series. All-Star Jayson Tatum said Mazzulla told his team on Sunday not to “surrender to that idea that we have to win tomorrow.”
While it’s unusual for a coach to diverge from the “one game at a time” mentality, the Celtics said the acknowledgement that they have three tries to win one game takes some of the pressure off them — pressure that may have gotten to them in their total dud of a Game 4.
“We would love to win tomorrow — more than anything,” Tatum said. “But if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. We have more opportunities.”
Irving said that the Mavericks are also trying to “enjoy the moment” and not focus on the fact that no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Game 6 would be back in Dallas on Thursday, with the potential deciding Game 7 in Boston on Sunday.
″(We are) just thinking about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made," Irving said. “We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston. We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas."
Will Kristaps Porzingis play Monday night?
That will be a lot harder if Boston center Kristaps Porzingis is available. The 7-foot-2 Latvian was listed on Sunday as questionable with a dislocated tendon in his left ankle.
Porzingis did not speak to reporters on Sunday. He practiced with the team wearing a white sleeve on his right leg, and during the 30 minutes that reporters were able to observe him on the court he was gingerly putting up shots from inside the lane, apparently taking care not to jump.
“I’m not sure where he’s at,” Mazzulla said. “But he’s trying and doing everything he can to try to put himself in position to be out there. I know that for sure.”
Porzingis missed 10 straight playoff games after straining his right calf in the first-round series against Miami. He returned for Game 1 of the finals and was a big reason for Boston’s victory, scoring 20 points with six rebounds and three blocked shots in 21 minutes.
But Porzingis dislocated a tendon in his left leg in Game 2, did not play in Game 3 and was said to be available for Game 4 “on a specific basis, if needed." (With the Celtics quickly falling behind in a 38-point loss, he never checked into the game.)
Less of a concern is the status of Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who has been on the injury report with injuries to his right knee and left ankle along with a bruised chest. He went through the warmups for Game 2 with his torso and knee wrapped, but delivered a triple double in the loss.
“At this point in the season, a lot of things going on,” he said on Sunday. “If I’m playing, I’m fine. No worries.”
