Boston Celtics’ confidence remains high as they prepare for Game 4 with New York Knicks

NEW YORK – The Boston Celtics insisted they were not concerned by dropping the first two games of their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series against the New York Knicks.

They stuck to the story despite those two setbacks coming at home. Even the fact they swept the four regular-season meetings and nearly all observers projected New York to be the team down 0-2 did not cause a lot of distress.

Blowing 20-point leads in both Games 1 and 2? Painful, of course, but not devastating enough to wave the white flag.

Their performance improved mightily in the third game of the matchup, and now Boston have a chance to even the series at 2-2 when they play in New York on May 12 (May 13, Singapore time).

“You’ve got to beat us four times. That’s what it comes down to,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown. “Not twice, not once, not three. You’ve got to win four games, so there’s a lot of basketball to be played.”

Boston’s May 10 win came in superlative fashion.

The Celtics led by as many as 31 points and regained their three-point shooting touch, so that could be key in Game 4. After being a combined 25 of 100 from behind the arc in the defeats, Boston connected on 20 of 40 in the 115-93 rout.

Jayson Tatum and NBA Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard each made five. Pritchard scored 23 points after averaging just 11 over the first two games, while Tatum had 22 points.

“Who cares what the outside world is saying,” Pritchard said in reference to some of the chatter about Boston’s propensity for firing away from outside. “Everybody’s all saying that we shoot too many threes, but if you believe in your shot and you’re able to hit it, then take it confidently.”

Boston coach Joe Mazzulla is not concerned that his team still trail in the series. “There’s no expectations,” he said. “We’re on a path of trying to go after greatness. There’s nothing to dictate the test that’s in front of you.”

Meanwhile, the Knicks are facing their first adversity of the series after being walloped at home. They never led and were down 71-46 at half-time.

New York star Jalen Brunson scored 27 points, but he was not overly thrilled with his team’s frame of mind.

“I don’t think we came with the mindset of being satisfied, but I think it was just subconsciously satisfied being up 2-0,” he said. “Just not the way we need to approach the game.”

New York know a Game 4 home loss removes the advantage they gained by winning twice in Boston. So, it basically is now must-win territory for the Knicks.

“You have to earn your wins. You have to put the work into winning,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said.

“We knew coming in that they were going to be coming in with force and we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready for that. And you know – we’ve got to play a strong 48 minutes of basketball.”

Knicks forward Josh Hart said remaining even-keel is important for his club.

“We knew it was gonna be a tough series,” he said. “When we win, we’re not too high and when we lose, we’re not too low. We always try to stay even. Make adjustments, but the mentality, the character of the team doesn’t change.”

In play-off action on May 11, the Indiana Pacers thrashed the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-109 to take a 3-1 stranglehold in their Eastern Conference series as Oklahoma City edged Denver to level their series at 2-2 in the West.

Pascal Siakam scored 21 points to lead seven Pacers players in double figures at home as Indiana pushed top seeds Cleveland to the brink of elimination.

There were no such offensive fireworks in Denver, where Oklahoma City squelched the Nuggets’ second-half comeback bid to claim a gritty 92-87 victory in a game where both teams struggled to get shots to fall. REUTERS, AFP