Celtics are now giving us reason to believe the impossible comeback is possible

BOSTON -- In sports, we tend to become prisoners of the moment. Perspective can be challenging to find when we're in the chaotic fog of the present.

Nevertheless ... Saturday night's Game 6 in Miami feels like one of the biggest nights in NBA history.

Overstatement? Of course. But after the Boston Celtics looked like THE BOSTON CELTICS on Thursday night in their 110-97 win over the Heat in Game 5, there's some serious, real reason to believe that the first-ever comeback from a 3-0 deficit is truly and actually possible.

Likely? Well, no. But if the Celtics simply continue playing the way they are capable against an unquestionably undermanned Miami team on Saturday, it will set up a Game 7 back in Boston on Monday night. Miami winning that game in that scenario seems almost as impossible as a 3-0 comeback for the Celtics felt at the start of this week.

We've already witnessed the Celtics become the 15th team (out of 151) to even force a Game 6 after falling behind 3-0 in a series. Now they'll seek to become the fourth team to force a Game 7.

Nobody thought this was possible just a couple of days ago. Yet over the course of just three quarters -- from halftime in Game 4 to the end of the first in Game 5 -- the Celtics flipped this series on its head. And they've made it look like a 57-win team was facing a 44-win team. They looked, in a word, better.

And it all sets up Game 6. In Miami. Where both teams will be under an otherworldly level of pressure. Whichever team passes that stress test best will -- in all likelihood -- win the series and move on to the NBA Finals.

The Celtics have come a long way from the "quit in Game 3, fire the coach, blow up the core" sentiment that permeated the Boston area on Monday morning.

So what changed? Well, for the second half of Game 4 and the first half of Game 5, we saw the Celtics and said, "THOSE are the Celtics we expected to see." They made us forget about those other Celtics who blew Games 1 and 2 and quit on Game 3. It's all been a lot to process in a short amount of time.

But the thing, really, is this: The past two games were no fluke. The Celtics are that good. We don't know when or why they play their worst, but a baseline level, they are better than the Heat and can keep winning -- especially when their effort level is where it's been for the past two games. (And especially if Joe Mazzulla continues to use his timeouts the way he has over the past two games.)

For whatever reason, this group of Celtics can't ever reach top speed unless they're legitimately backed up against a wall. So it's not difficult to envision them playing a similar game on Saturday.

The other side of that coin shows a Heat team that proved how tough and relentless it can be. The Heat -- and, mostly, Jimmy Butler -- don't quit, and they don't get overwhelmed. They came out of halftime in Game 1 and obliterated Boston. They saved their knockout blow for the fourth quarter in Game 2. And Game 3 was a beatdown, the culmination of what can happen when the Heat impose their will on an opponent over the course of several games.

For as much as we wondered where the real Celtics went in the first three games of the series, we can also question the whereabouts of the real Heat over the past eight quarters.

That recent history is enough to make some of us feel a bit apprehensive with making any bold claims about what will happen. But we do know beyond any doubt what could happen. Even mentioning that possibility after Game 3 would have made you look a bit loony. All of that Kevin Millar, 2004 Red Sox "don't let us win tonight" talk was fun and nostalgic. It also wasn't real.

But now? Now, the completion of a 3-0 comeback for the first time in NBA history is legitimately possible. There is no doubt about that.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.