addByline("Marc D'Amico", "Celtics.com", "Marc_DAmico");
MILWAUKEE – In the infamous words of Zaza Pachulia back in 2008: “Nothing easy!”
If the Celtics want to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, they’re going to have to earn it in a do-or-die scenario Saturday night at TD Garden.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the C’s are primed and ready for the opportunity.
“TD Garden is going to be great,” Al Horford said after Thursday’s 97-86 loss to Milwaukee during Game 6. “As a basketball player, fan, one of the places that you want to enjoy and be – it’s the Garden, TD Garden, for a Game 7.”
Added Brad Stevens, “Game 7 at TD Garden is what you play for.”
It’s also what Boston earned this season.
The C’s won 55 games during the regular season and captured the second seed in the Eastern Conference. With that seed came the right to host any potential Game 7 they were to be involved in during the first two rounds of the NBA Playoffs.
They’ll now be involved in the first Game 7 of this NBA postseason, and it’s now time for them to take advantage of the home-court advantage they earned.
Some call “Game 7” the greatest two words in sports. They’re even better when they’re uttered in a home setting, and such will be the case in Boston yet again.
The Celtics will host Game 7 at 8 p.m. Saturday night, just three days after the Boston Bruins hosted and defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden in Game 7 of the NHL Playoffs. The C’s will look to accomplish the same feat as their co-tenants and move on to the next round. Doing so, however, will stand as a hefty challenge.
Boston had Milwaukee’s back against the wall heading into Thursday night but failed to knock the Bucks out during Game 6. Milwaukee shot the ball at an impressively high rate yet again, this time at 50.7 percent, as it grabbed a season-saving victory. It marked the fifth time in six games of the series during which the Bucks made at least 48.2 percent of their shots.
“We got great looks this whole series,” Khris Middleton, who is shooting a red-hot 57 percent from the field during the series, said after Milwaukee’s win. “It’s just a matter of knocking them down and trusting the pass.”
Milwaukee has done so more often than not. The Bucks will enter Game 7 having hit 50.4 percent of their shots during the season.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have shot just 42.7 percent from the field during the series, including their 37-percent shooting performance during Game 6.
It will be interesting to see if either of those trends hold true, or if they invert, during Game 7. It is impossible to predict how each teams’ players will react to a Game-7 environment.
There is no more pressure-packed scenario than a Game 7. It is literally win or go home. The winner moves on. The loser heads into the offseason.
An intriguing fact about Saturday’s matchup is that neither of these teams have much experience in playing in Game 7s.
On Boston’s side of the ball, only Horford, Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart stand as rotational players who have participated in a Game 7. Brown, who played 20 minutes in Game 7 against Washington last season, and Rozier, who played only four minutes during that game, are in significantly different roles this season. Saturday night will mark their first starts in a Game 7.
Aron Baynes was a member of a Spurs team that went to a Game 7, but he did not participate in that game.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, possesses even less experience when it comes to Game 7s. Of its rotation, only Eric Bledsoe, who played 14 minutes in a Game 7 with the Clippers back in 2012, has appeared in a Game 7. Tyler Zeller and Matthew Dellavedova have played for teams that went to Game 7s but they did not check into the contests.
As such, the Celtics will have two great advantages come Saturday night. First and foremost, they will have a deafening crowd behind them for the entirety of the night. Secondly, they’ll have the advantage in the experience category when it comes to playing in Game 7s.
Those two factors are important, but they don’t guarantee anything for Boston. Nothing comes easy during the postseason, even on your home court.
The Celtics must play the way they did during Games 1, 2 and 5 at TD Garden if they want to move on. They needs to find a way – any way – to get it done Saturday night.