Celtics Too Comfortable at Home

Down 13 with 6 minutes to go. At home. Against the Wizards. Celtics cut it to 11, but on the next possession, KG kicks the ball. Now down 11 with 5 minutes to go, and the Wizards have the ball.

We can go through our litany of excuses. Teams get up to beat us, now even at home. We're too old to bring it every night, especially against bad teams. But I say we get too comfortable at home. The Celtics know they're gonna have to win some games on the road to win banner #18. That gives them a little extra edge when they play away from the Gahden. At home, against bad teams, there is no edge. There should be. After all, the Celtics not only need to win some road games in the playoffs, they'll have to defend serve as well.

The Celtics also expect too much from the home crowd. The players figure they can just lolly-gag it for three quarters, and the crowd will help them pull out the win in the fourth. It's nothing new. We saw it during the 1980s. Recall Larry Bird's challenge to the home crowd during the 1985 Finals: "You win game 6 for us, we'll win game 7 for you."

Interesting, but ultimately it doesn't work that way. It certainly didn't work that way in 1985. Basketball players have to play basketball. Do the players think that the crowd was primarily responsible for the game 7 blowout against the Hawks in 2008? The Game 7 win against Cleveland? Three of the four wins in the Finals?

Home court is thought to make about a three-point difference in the final outcome, and the Celtics won by 3 points last night. But it's still a mistake for the Boston Celtics to rely on the Gahden crowd when Team Green is trying to find it's mojo.