What Strange TD Garden Trend Celtics Continued With Playoff Loss

BOSTON — The Cleveland Cavaliers brought the tempo at TD Garden on Thursday night, downing the Celtics, 118-94, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Cavaliers erupted behind 29 points from Donovan Mitchell to outscore the Celtics, 64-40, in the second half to even the second-round series at a game apiece. Boston lost Game 2 at home for the second straight series after dropping the second game last round to the Miami Heat before ultimately eliminating them in five games.

That’s become a growing concern for the Celtics in recent years. As ESPN alluded to following Thursday’s loss, the Celtics fell back to .500 in a recent trend, going just 15-15 at home in postseason play since 2021.

Boston has not made a major difference on its home floor with everything on the line. The Celtics have been eliminated at home in back-to-back seasons by the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals and Miami in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals.

With that being said, there have been impactful performances in that span with the Celtics earning Game 7 wins at home in consecutive Eastern Conference semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The trend stuck with the Celtics to end last season and rose as a motivating factor during the regular season when Boston started 20-0 and finished 37-4 at TD Garden. Boston is now 3-2 this postseason at home and will have to find an answer on the parquet floor in order to realize its championship dreams.