Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics are currently down 3-0 to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, but it seems like the two players still have lots of confidence in their team.
The 29-year-old Smart issued a strong warning ahead of Game 4 of the series, which is set to take place on Tuesday night.
Brown later echoed that statement with a warning of his own.
The first two games of the series were back and forth, but Miami ended up winning both contests in Boston. Things were a lot different on Sunday night in Game 3, however.
It was pretty clear from the get-go that the Heat were going to be pretty tough to defeat. The Celtics were unable to get their offense going, and they were also incapable of stopping the Heat on defense.
Miami scored 128 points in the 26-point blowout, shooting 56.8 percent from the field and 54.3 percent from beyond the arc. Role players led the way for the Heat, as Gabe Vincent scored 29 points while Duncan Robinson added 22 points of his own. Caleb Martin also came off the bench to record 18 points on 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
Though the Heat have undoubtedly looked like the better team throughout the first three games of the series, it isn’t surprising to hear Celtics players express confidence.
On Monday, Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon said Boston still believes it is the better team despite being in a 3-0 hole.
It’s important to note that no team in NBA history has ever won a playoff series after being down 3-0. The Celtics will be looking to change that.
It doesn’t bode well for the Celtics that the Los Angeles Lakers, who were in a 3-0 hole in the Western Conference Finals, were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in a four-game sweep on Monday night.
Boston likely isn’t thinking too much about the NBA’s other conference. It just needs to take things game by game if it wants any chance of advancing to the NBA Finals for the second straight season.
The Celtics beat the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2021-22 campaign before falling to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals.
That loss undoubtedly still motivates the Celtics. Game 4 between the Celtics and Heat is set to tip off at 8:30 p.m. EST from Kaseya Center.
It will be interesting to see if Jimmy Butler and other Heat players draw motivation from the comments made by Brown and Smart.