Celtics finally look like the better team in blowout win vs. Heat

BOSTON -- The Celtics like to take the difficult road. We know this. We've known this. But trying to become the first team in NBA history to come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series? That was a bit extreme, even by the Celtics' standards.

And, to be blunt, that still seems like an impossible challenge. But for the first time in this Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, we have finally seen the Celtics look like the best team on the floor.

After a largely uninspiring first half, Boston fell behind by nine points early in the third quarter. What followed next was a season-saving, 18-0 run by the Celtics, completely flipping the game on its head. The Celtics won that third quarter by 15 points, then held strong to outscore Miami by eight points in the final quarter to ensure that the outcome would not be in doubt in the game's final minutes. Boston would win comfortably, 116-109. Game 5 will be Thursday night in Boston.

Jayson Tatum was the best player on the court. The Celtics got back to playing defense. They aggressively crashed the boards. Joe Mazzulla used his timeouts and made his substitutions wisely. Al Horford and Derrick White hit their shots.

In short: The Celtics played the way we all believe they should be playing every night.

That performance will lead some to believe this 3-0 comeback is possible. That's because, well, it is. The Celtics are the better basketball team on paper, so it will be difficult to rule them out completely until or if they do lose that fourth game.

For now, of course, the Celtics can't think about all of that. They'll just have to focus on Thursday night, so their Game 5 can look something like Game 4 and nothing like Game 3.

"Now we just gotta go win another one," Marcus Smart said after an 11-point, six-assist night. "That's all that matters. We're gonna take it one game at a time. We understand the odds are stacked against us, but we're a team that believes in us no matter what. And we just gotta going and all that matters is the next game."

Smart criticized his team for getting "tired of doing the little things" in their Game 1 loss in this series, but he said the team nailed the little things in Game 4. Both Smart and Mazzulla noted that the Celtics played with trust and belief in one another, leading to a complete team victory with the season on the line.

It was, no doubt, encouraging. The question now becomes whether it was too little too late, or whether it was the first step of a historic comeback.

On the one hand, it feels as though the series will be heading back to Miami for Game 6 on Saturday, as the odds have to be quite low for the Celtics to lose three straight home games in a single series. In the NBA, such a scenario is difficult to fathom.

"We want to come back to Miami. So if that happens, I feel like we're gonna feel good about ourselves," Jaylen Brown said. "So the next one should be fun, it'll be a big one. We've gotta come out ready to play."

Tatum spoke to the motivation that went into Game 4's performance by the team.

"We didn't play well those first three games. We didn't deserve to win. But we didn't want that to define us, to define the season.," he said. "And we still got a long, uphill battle. But tonight was a good start, and we'll just try to carry this momentum towards Thursday."

On the other hand, we can't forget what Jimmy Butler did in Games 1 and 2 in Boston. He's a stone-cold killer on the court, and he seemed wholly unfazed by the Celtics' victory on Tuesday night.

"No," Butler answered directly when asked if he had concerns that the win could give Boston momentum. "If anything, it'll build momentum for us, knowing that we have to play with a lot more energy. Abd we gotta play like our backs are against the wall."

That's how Butler and the Heat played in the first two games in Boston in this series, so we know what happens when they play their best, most determined style of basketball. For all of the positivity now budding in the minds of Celtics fans, it could certainly all go poof if the shots don't fall for Boston on Thursday.

For the time being, though, there is reason to believe in the Celtics -- if not for the complete comeback, then at least for a win in Game 5. After Sunday night, that scenario seemed impossible. At the very least, Game 4's dominant second half has Boston believing that something special has a chance of being on the horizon.