Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett played some of their most memorable playoff series in front of a wild TD Garden crowd, and that kind of atmosphere can be hard to match.
That’s probably why the two former Boston Celtics weren’t particularly impressed with their first taste of the Brooklyn Nets playoff crowd at the Barclays Center on Friday for Game 3 of their series against the Toronto Raptors.
The two teams entered the game with one win apiece, and the Nets were able to hold off a Raptors rally in the fourth quarter to win it 102-98 and take the 2-1 series lead. But after the game, KG and Pierce were concerned that the crowd got into the game too late.
“They could do better,” Garnett said, as reported by EPSN. “I was expecting Brooklyn to be real hostile, New York-style. I know what it’s like to come here as the opposition, so our crowd could do better, but they were there when we needed them, and we fed off of them.”
Pierce was a bit more optimistic than Garnett.
“Well, we know gradually they got into it,” Pierce said. “Hopefully the next game, it will get a lot better from the start. We want to come out from the jump, from the beginning, and have them in the game. It shouldn’t take a big play from us. We want them behind us. It was a great crowd tonight.”
The Brooklyn crowd will have a chance to redeem themselves for Game 4 on Sunday.
Photo via Twitter/@SportsCenter
