C's smell blood as series shifts to Miami

By Marc D'Amico
April 21, 2010
Celtics.com

Championship teams are triggered by the smell of an opponent's blood. With their senses heightened and their aggression in full swing, championship teams thrive when that situation presents itself.

The Boston Celtics were triggered by that scent Tuesday night against the Miami Heat and they responded with a 106-77 blowout win, which put them ahead 2-0 in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series. Now it's time for the C's to do it again, but this time they'll have to do it in their opponent's territory.

As numerous Celtics noted at Wednesday's practice, that task will be much more difficult to complete in Miami, where Game 3 will be played, than it was in Boston. The C's know this because they've been in this situation once before.

"That's all I think about now," said Ray Allen while reminiscing about Boston's 2008 First Round series against the Atlanta Hawks. "It resonates so big with this team now because we were flying high up two (games in that series). I think we blew them out both games here in [the TD Garden]. We had all played in [Philips Arena] before and so we didn't expect what we saw, what we got out of it. That building carried them to two victories there."

The goal is to not allow that to happen again this time, but it's difficult to ignore the similar circumstances between the two series. In both this series and the Atlanta series, Boston gained a 2-0 advantage after making it look easy on their home floor, provided themselves with a legitimate opportunity to sweep on the road and had the media hopping on its bandwagon.

That's a great situation for the Celtics, but is clearly not ideal for the opponent. That's exactly why the Celtics expect Miami's best in Game 3, just as Atlanta provided them two seasons ago. Garnett described that Atlanta game as a "shell shock," but now that the C's have that experience under their belt, they know what to expect this time around.

"Their backs are against the wall and they're thinking that if they don't get Game 3 that this is pretty much over," said Garnett. "I know that's what I would be thinking, so we need to be ready for that."

Boston is preparing for such, and they will have their full arsenal available to rebuttal Miami's best punch Friday night.

The Heat played one of their worst games of the season in Game 2, falling behind by as many as 33 points in the second half, and showed visible frustration and disbelief on every level of their bench, from the head coach to the players. This is a team that won 12 of its final 13 regular season games and entered the postseason with loads of confidence. They're sure to come out with a purpose in Game 3 and an attempt to reverse their recent fortunes.

Winning on the road is of urmost importance in the NBA, and specifically in the playoffs. There is a maximum of seven opportunities for a road team to notch a win in this series, and thus far the visitor is 0-for-2. The Celtics want to change that Friday night in Game 3 by grabbing a road win, because they're currently yearning for a whiff of series-clinching blood.

"[Tuesday] at halftime, guys were [saying] they smelled blood...," said Kendrick Perkins. "Going into Game 3, hopefully we can still smell blood, right?"

It's there for the smelling, Perk. The only question is if the Celtics will react that scent on Friday night in the same fashion they did on Tuesday. That game resulted in the embarrassment of Dwyane Wade and the Heat on national television, and Boston would gladly accept a duplicate of that performance Friday night..