How the Boston Celtics can win Game 6 and save their season

The Boston Celtics suffered a demoralizing loss in Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Celtics held a 14 point lead at one point in the fourth quarter and seemed in control, but the Bucks stormed back to take a commanding 3-2 series lead.

Now Boston is faced with the prospect of their season ending on Friday in Game 6, and they are in for quite a challenge. The series now will head back to Wisconsin, where the Bucks will have a chance to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals with a win. The momentum is fully in Milwaukee’s favor heading into this game.

The Celtics seem down-and-out, which makes sense after suffering such a tough loss. But the fact of the matter is, their season is not over yet. Things may not look great, but they have just as good a shot of winning Game 6 as the Bucks do right now. So here’s how they can get it done.

The Boston Celtics need to get their heads straight

The first thing Boston needs to do is get their minds right. Basketball is very much a mental sport, and if you have a losing mentality, you’ve already lost before you’ve even taken the court. The Celtics seemed deflated in the immediate aftermath of their Game 5 loss, but that’s typically what happens when you throw away a chance to take control of a series against the defending champs.

Dwelling on that loss too much will kill this team though. It’s important to go back and figure out what went wrong in the fourth quarter, but what’s more important is figuring out how they will respond.

Truth is, this series has been full of momentum shifts from the get go. It seemed like Bucks were set to take a 3-1 lead in Game 4 before the Celtics rallied backs to win. And tonight, Boston had everything going for them before the Bucks rallied to take control of the series. It’s going to be tough for the C’s to win Game 6 in enemy territory, but we have seen so far in this series that making quick adjustments won’t be impossible.

Boston has nothing to lose at this point; the pressure is squarely on Milwaukee to walk away with this series. That pressure can build up, and when a team is desperate on the other end of the court, they become dangerous. There’s a reason why it’s so difficult to close out teams in the NBA, and that’s because teams with nothing to lose instantly become ten times more dangerous.

Aside from the fact the Celtics have nothing to lose, they also have controlled this series for long stretches of the action. If a couple of plays go their way in Games 3 & 5, this series is probably over. They know they can beat the Bucks, and they know they can beat them on their home court. But they need to have the mentality that they can do it, otherwise, they have already lost.