Wanna See the Celtics at Their Best? Beat 'em in the Playoffs and See What Happens

Boston is 7-0 this year in playoff games after a loss, winning by an impressive 14.3 points per game. Do they have another bounce-back win in them against Golden State?

The Boston Celtics have been about as predictable as a metronome when it comes to handling defeat.

Every playoff loss for them this season has been followed by a victory.

“We just hope to continue that,” said Boston’s Payton Pritchard.

Boston doesn’t just bounce back and win; they win going away.

The Celtics are 7-0 this year in the playoffs after a loss. In those seven games, the average margin of victory is 14.1 points.

In Boston’s Game 2 loss to Golden State, the Celtics responded with a 16-point victory in Game 3.

As strange as it may sound, the Celtics are actually comfortable with the series tied at 2-2.

“Our group is just very resilient, and I feel like anytime that our backs are against the wall, we feel like we need to respond,” said Boston’s Al Horford. “That's the situation that we're facing right now. Obviously, this is going to be a tough environment (for Game 5), but it's a challenge that we're very excited to take on.”

And the Warriors, in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, are preparing for what they anticipate will be a motivated Celtics team to begin the game strong.

“You know they are going to respond and you know they are going to come out hard and probably try to punch us in the mouth early, but we've got to be able to impose our will,” said Golden State’s Kevon Looney. “And this is what we wanted. This is what we wanted home court for, best two-out-of-three, and we got two of them at home. Just protect home court.”

Against the Celtics, that’s a lot easier said than done.

In their first three playoff series this year, Boston came away with at least two wins in each series, on their opponent’s home floor.

During the regular season, only four teams (Phoenix; Memphis; Denver and Philadelphia) had a better record on the road than Boston (24-17).

There’s no question that after losses, the Celtics go back to the video room to see what they can improve upon, and try to go out and make those adjustments.

But at this point in the series, changes between the ears trump those made between the lines of play.

“Yeah, it's very mental,” said Celtics star Jayson Tatum. “Just the attention to detail and making the adjustments in-game and having an awareness and not let things snowball and not necessarily let it…make the adjustments for next game after we lose, that we can be better at, you know, making adjustments and figuring things out and from quarter to quarter and things like that.

He added, “It's like a new series, best of three. Excited for the challenge.”

As has been the case most of this season, Boston’s success will hinge heavily on the play of Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

But that doesn’t mean they’re feeling any added pressure to perform.

“We know why we're here. We know where we're at. We know it's the Finals,” Brown said. “We know the severity of the game. There's no need to say things that are already understood. We know how important this game is and the energy that we need to come out with and how we need to set our team up and how we need to make plays and how we need to guard and defend. We know all the ins and outs. We've just got to come and do it and let everybody watch and witness.”