Which Celtics team will show up for Game 5?

BOSTON -- After spending a day dwelling on how the Celtics lost Game 4 in Philadelphia, it's time to move on and focus on Tuesday night's Game 5. For the Celtics, they need to approach it as a must-win game.

Tuesday night isn't exactly a Game 7, and a win doesn't mean there won't be an actual Game 7 come Sunday afternoon. But maybe taking a Game 7 approach on Tuesday is what the Celtics need to be at their best. 

Unfortunately, we just don't know which version of the Celtics will show up.

Will it be the Celtics of Games 2 and 3? A team that rolled for 48 minutes. A team that shared the ball on offense and generated great looks for each other. A team that was able to wear down Joel Embiid and frustrate James Harden with stellar defense, all without leaving the rest of the 76ers open for easy baskets. A team that didn't fumble away wins.

Or will it be the Celtics of Games 1 and 4? A team that did fumble away potential wins. A team that came out flat; defensively in Game 1 and offensively in Game 4. A team that went cold on offense for long stretches and took plays off on defense. A team that didn't look ready to compete until it was too late.

After saying they'll learn from the controversial end of Game 4, the Celtics need to go out and show that growth Tuesday night instead of trying to just speak into existence. A convincing win would do just that.

But for whatever reason, the Celtics don't play their best until their backs are against the wall. They seem to enjoy making life more difficult than it needs to be, and that ultimately hurt them by the time the NBA Finals arrive. If they keep messing around like that this year, there's a good chance they don't make it back to June basketball.  

This year's Celtics can't afford to repeat last year's second-round path, when they squandered a chance to go up 3-2 on the Milwaukee Bucks with a Game 5 win at home. The Celtics ultimately won that series in seven games after Jayson Tatum went berserk in Game 6 in Milwaukee and Grant Williams stole the show in a blowout Game 7 victory. Maybe if they closed that series out in six games, they would have had a little more juice against the Heat and the Warriors.

There have been 39 teams that lost a Game 5 at home to fall into a 3-2 series hole since 1984. Just 13 of those teams have come back to win the series. Teams that lost Games 1 and 5 at home and Game 4 on the road are 0-4. Overall, teams down 3-2 have come back to win a series 34 times to 191 loss. 

So Game 5 is a pretty big deal. It's not quite a Game 7, but the Celtics should treat it as such.