Yes, it is another Game 6 — this one at the TD Garden and not on the road. And, yes, it follows what was a 3-0 series lead. But history will not be made again with a Boston team on the losing end.
It's not going to happen.
As we all know by now, Kevin Garnett was asked the very question several days ago when that now so-often questioned series lead was first taken. His response: "This isn't hockey."
It is a fair answer. They are different teams and different sports. An NBA team has never lost a series after taking a 3-0 lead. The Celtics, the most storied of franchises in league history, will not be the first.
As the series shifts back to Boston, after a bizarre and bruising Game 5 in Orlando, writers from the Sunshine State are already laying the groundwork. (I should point out they're not alone.) But the so-called ghosts in the Garden — present from the still-fresh Bruins collapse — will not wield any incantations Friday night. I'm as big a fiction fan as any reader, but this isn't Harry Potter. There is no "You-Know-Who," Voldemort, or any spirit who shall not be named.
Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, whose image is proudly painted inside his Chester, Pa., high school, speaks of dressing in the same space the Flyers did before their own improbable comeback. He can think about it all he wants — he's a Philly guy, we get it — but the Celtics won't be thinking about it at all.
This is a veteran Celtics team. They have leadership. They have experience. They have many battle scars.
Dwight Howard has provided some new ones. Don't think the Celtics didn't expect it. Even Doc Rivers said after Game 5, "[Howard]'s a physical player. … That's his gift. He's doing what he should do, and we've just got to do a better job of taking the hits, I guess."
Hopefully, Kendrick Perkins will take them with a smart approach Friday night, knowing he's only a technical away from an automatic game suspension. Most importantly, the Celtics' big man will be there to take them. Howard has found his own version of leadership, and it is working. Perkins is a key part of the Celtics' retort.
Earlier this week, NESN insider Dana Barros and I discussed the unique way in which this Celtics team understands its own immortality. KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Co. realize they do not have decades — or even years — to play together. This is it. How many times did we hear during the regular season that this — the playoffs — is what they were playing for?
They have endured too much to let the opportunity to play for a ring slip away, and history — neither the Bruins' collapse nor the NBA's perfect record — will play a role in this one.
