Celtics Expecting 76ers Best In Game 4
BOSTON (CBS) – With a chance to go up 3-1 on Philadelphia, the Boston Celtics know they will get the 76ers best effort in Friday night's Game 4.
"We know they're going to play a better game," Celtics captain Paul Pierce said Thursday outside the team hotel. "They're at home again, their backs are against the wall. If we win this next game I like our chances with two more home games. We have to expect a better game from them, to come out and get behind their crowd and play better ball. We have to come out and take that first punch, withstand it, and just try to grind it out like we did (Wednesday) night."
The Celtics did not practice on Thursday, opting to just watch film of their 107-91 Game 3 win on Wednesday night. The Celtics controlled the game for nearly all 48 minutes, but know there is still room for improvement.
"We didn't play a perfect game," said point guard Rajon Rondo, who scored 23 points to go with his game-high 14 assists. "We made a lot more shots than we did in Game 2, but there's some things we can do defensively to make adjustments, to try to continue to shut those guys down. They scored 33 points in the first quarter, that's a quarter we can look at. They made some tough shots, they got into the paint, which we don't want to allow. We still have some room to improve as well."
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Guard Ray Allen, who hit his only shot from the floor Wednesday and finished with three points, said the Celtics struggled to begin quarters, which is something they will look to improve Friday night.
"You have to start in good fashion; establish a tempo on both sides of the floor. You have to make sure you start at the beginning of the third quarter in that same fashion, because you don't want to give them any momentum," said Allen. "That's huge for us, we can't have any let downs."
A win on Friday would give the Celtics a very good chance to advance to their third Eastern Conference Finals in the last five years. But they are just taking it one game at a time, focusing on the task at hand.
"We're taking one game at a time; we won the first one (in Philadelphia), now we have another one," said head coach Doc Rivers. "The key for us is to keep our focus and play with the same energy, not play like we won and now we can relax. You have to win the series, that's the point here. You have to take one game at a time. You can't look at whether you lost or won; the last game is over, now we have a new game."
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"We can't walk into a series or game thinking this team is going to bow down to us," added Allen. "Now, everybody is here and everybody knows they can win and move on. We have to continue to feel as though we have to be the aggressors and we have to attack. We are, somewhat the underdogs because we don't have any room to play around with."
And for all those talking about this being the Celtics' final run together, they've already heard enough of that.
"We realized that when we came in for preseason, training camp; I think pretty much the last couple years we've been feeling like that," Pierce said of this being the team's last go-around together. "But the influence is to try to win a championship, regardless if this is going to be our last time together."
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"The focus right now is the playoffs," said Kevin Garnett, who is averaging nearly 24 points and 12 rebounds this series. "I haven't really given it that much thought to be honest. We're definitely aware of it… but right now it's the playoffs; nothing more or nothing less than that."
"I don't play it up, I can tell you that," said Rivers. "This is this year. I don't know what's going to go on in two months from now. We have to take care of (Game 4).; watch film and get ready and after that it's the next game. That's how it has to be with us. I think we've been forced into that with all the injuries and stuff we've gone through; we're a single team game, and that's what we have to stay."
