The Boston Celtics have ridden a wave of negative momentum to an 0-3 deficit against the Miami Heat in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.
In fact, that momentum is unlike anything this version of the C’s has seen before.
In the effort to extend their season and send the conference finals to a fifth game, the Celtics will also be looking to avoid something they haven’t done all year, because a loss on Tuesday night would mark the first time in 2022-23 that Boston lost four consecutive games, as pointed out by MassLive’s Brian Robb on Twitter. In fact, they lost three consecutive games just three times over the course of their 82-game regular season, bouncing back to rally off consecutive wins on all three occasions.
If Celtics fans are looking for something to hold on to, the first of those losing streaks was followed by a winning streak of four games.
As anyone could imagine, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were paramount in those bounce-back wins. Tatum led all scorers in two of those contests, dropping 41 and 29 points, respectively. Brown led all scorers in the other two games, scoring 36 and 39 of his own.
In a Game 4 that represents the first time in the series in which they are not the favorite, the Celtics will need large scoring outputs from both Tatum and Brown. They will also need improved performances from just about everyone else, including head coach Joe Mazzulla and role players Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III, etc.
They’ll just have to continue to “fake like each other” to make that happen. If the Celtics can do that, all while continuing to display the attitude they have, perhaps the Eastern Conference finals head back to Boston for to Game 5.
