Both Boston Celtics and Miami Heat fans were able to rest their nerves as the teams had the night off on Thursday. Coming off of a thriller, and quite possibly, a Game 2 that will go in the books as one of the greatest playoffs games ever, the Heat and Celtics will face off tonight in Boston for Game 3.
Down 2-0, The Celtics must play Game 3 with a sense of urgency. The Celtics have to win at home in order to get back into this series. Everybody knows 2-1 and 3-0 are completely different when playing in a best-of-seven series.
With a loss, odds would drastically be against the Celtics.
The solution to the Celtics problems will not be putting Rondo on the floor for 53 minutes and scoring 44 points. Boston has to play balanced basketball and rely on their bench players and role players to make plays.
Mickael Pietrius and Brandon Bass have to do a better job at getting open or staying around the basket for the loose balls that turn into easy buckets. Pietrus only had two points in 28 minutes of action in Game 2. Bass did a great job rebounding but only had eight points.
They do not have to go out and try to score 20 points each, it would be helpful, but not a necessity.
Paul Pierce has to remain in the game. In Game 2 he fouled in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. It did not look harmful, but had Pierce remained in the game, he could have made a difference in overtime.
Rondo scored 12 points in the overtime, which is great, but he was the only Celtic who scored in those five minutes.
It would be interesting to see how the Celtics react to the amount of minutes they played. We know the team is not getting any younger. Both Pierce and Ray Allen played 43 minutes and Kevin Garnett played 45.
They will probably have a lot of adrenaline giving them a push in the early minutes, especially in front of the home crowd, but will it be a repeat of Game 2, where they could not contain the Heat in the second half?
We will have to wait and see.
The Heat will go Game 3 without Chris Bosh once again. They have not missed him too much in this series, since they have outscored the Celtics in the paint. The Celtics have to try getting the ball to Garnett inside. It cannot be said enough times. The Heat do not have an answer for Garnett's length.
Game 3 will be tipping off in Boston after 8:30 PM eastern time tonight.