Celtics Ready For Much Hyped Playoff Series Against Heat
BOSTON (CBS) - The Boston Celtics had a feeling after opening the regular season with a win against the new-look Heat, the road to the franchise's 18th championship would likely have to go through the Miami.
"We knew it would eventually happen at one point or another," Captain Paul Pierce said before practice on Thursday. "I'm excited, this is a great stage for basketball. It's going to be great for basketball. The guys that we have here love these type of series."
Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce Talk Series With Heat
"We assumed when they put this team together, at some point if we wanted to put another banner up we'd probably have to go through them," said Coach Doc Rivers.
Read: Celtics-Heat Playoff Schedule
The Celtics and Heat will begin their Eastern Conference Semifinals on Sunday in Miami in what should be another classic, and hyped, Celtics playoff series against Lebron James.
"It's the half way point of what our goal is," said Pierce. "I know this is going to be hyped like a championship series, but you have to understand this is still just the second round. But a very big second round because you have two potential teams that could win it all."
The Celtics were able to take three of the four regular season matchups with the heavily hyped Miami team that brought together marque free agents Lebron, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. But the Celtics are going to throw those results out the window when the series begins.
"You use all of them but you don't overplay any of them," Rivers said of the regular season meetings with Miami. "They're all one game, they're all single games. During the regular season, you don't know how you're team is playing, if they're injured, if you're tired from travel."
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"The regular season is so over-played," Doc continued. "There are things you can get out of it. But for the most part, what you get out of the regular season is you see a style of play. How they play you, you play them, and then you put it on the floor."
