BOSTON — The Boston Celtics nearly found themselves singing an all-to-familiar tune Monday night.
Leading by as many as 23 in the first half against the Miami Heat at TD Garden, by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the C’s found their once hefty advantage down to just three points.
Though the result was fine enough for them in the end, a 110-105 win, it nevertheless was the continuation of a concerning trend for a team that’s already suffered a loss on home court following the squandering of a 28-point lead.
Many times, the Celtics’ downfall has begun in the third quarter, but that wasn’t totally the case Monday. After outscoring the Heat 36-17 in a monster first quarter, the Celtics proceeded to get outscored in the ensuing quarters by five, three and six points.
For head coach Brad Stevens, the lead nearly escaping them altogether wasn’t so much a point of emphasis, rather that they managed to not let it result in a loss.
“We needed to, like, have one of these where things were really going against us and we just found a way, right?,” Stevens said. “And unfortunately, we got two of these against these guys at home, but that’s what they do. They just keep coming, they’re really hard-playing, they’re really well-coached. And like I said about the zone, I thought we just got stagnant. You know, we — we showed that we can play great against it, and then we just slowed down a little bit too much.”
Celtics guard Marcus Smart, who had 16 points in the victory, made clear that things got back on track when the Celtics focused on themselves.
“They are a scrappy team, so they do what they do what they do best, scrapped,” Smart said. “They made the game real ugly, the zone really helped them out, they forced us to take the shots they wanted us to take instead of the ones we wanted. Once we got back into the groove of what we’re supposed to do and worried about us, things kind of fell into place. But that is what they do, they are scrappy and we have to be ready every night.”
The Celtics now will head to Miami to take on the Heat on Wednesday. For Al Horford, who had his second career triple-double Monday, the Celtics not having the benefit of home court and needing to play better in order to drown out a crowd is good preparation for the looming postseason.
“It has been tough all season and at this point I just think we have to focus on the next game and see what happened tonight and really learn from it,” Horford said. “This is the time we have to be better and going on the road you have to play much better than at home. Here we have the home crowd, we have the momentum, but we have to be able to hold leads a little better.”
Though the Celtics could end up with home court advantage in their near-certain first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers, any ensuing round they likely won’t have that luxury unless there are some upsets. So suffice to say figuring out their lead-preserving woes should be a major area of instruction these last four games.
