Celtics bringing a "must-win" mentality to Game 5
BOSTON -- After letting two winnable games slip away over the last week, the Celtics find themselves tied 2-2 with the Philadelphia 76ers heading into Tuesday night's Game 5 at the TD Garden.
The Celtics could have had a potential clincher on their hands Tuesday night, but some poor execution down the stretch cost them Game 4 on Sunday. Joe Mazzulla hanging onto his timeouts at the end of regulation and overtime has been the talk of the town for the last 24 hours, but Celtics players know they shoulder a lot of the blame too.
Mazzulla held himself accountable and told his players he should have called a timeout on the team's final possession of overtime. Veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon isn't blaming the loss on any particular person or play, and said Tuesday that it was the culmination of a lot of plays gone wrong for Boston.
"It's never one mistake that loses a game. There was a lot leading up to that in the third and fourth," he said. "If we take care of business we wouldn't be in that position."
Game 4 is in the past, and the Celtics are focused on Game 5. While they remain encouraged about making a comeback in the fourth quarter on Sunday after a lackadaisical start, there is a lot of anger that they couldn't finish the job. That anger will serve as fuel on Tuesday night.
"We stay in high spirits and are always encouraged. There is frustration and anger when we lose games we feel we should have won, but we stay encouraged regardless," Brogdon said after the team's morning shootaround in Brighton.
With the series knotted up, the Celtics are bringing a "must-win" mentality to the Garden on Tuesday night.
"[We're] focused, locked in. This is a must-win for us," said Brogdon. "It's a desperation mindset for us tonight. We have to have this one."
The Celtics are the better team in the series, but at times they haven't played like it. They looked like the title favorites that they are as they cruised to fairly easy wins in Game 2 and 3, which makes their self-inflicted wounds in Games 1 and 4 all the more frustrating.
That's why the series sits at 2-2, and the Celtics are well aware that they've been their own worst enemy at some really inopportune times.
"We're playing a good team. A lot of respect on this end for that team. But [Games 1 and 4] we should have won and we're going to come out the right way tonight," said Brogdon.
