And, coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them, that they would still have two more chances after that.
“We don’t like to lose,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said before practice on Sunday. “I think we are ready for Game 5. I think that’s the best answer that I’ve got. I think that we’re ready. We’re at home. And we’re looking forward to it.”
The Celtics cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA and then did even better in the playoffs, never trailing in a series while winning 15 of their first 17 games. They opened a 3-0 lead on Dallas, but the Mavericks avoided elimination with a 122-84 victory on Friday night — the third-biggest blowout in Finals history.
That sent the series back to Boston, where the Celtics will again try to win their unprecedented 18th NBA title — and their first since 2008. In a city that’s collected 12 championships already this century, that’s what passes for a drought.
“This is what we all work for,” Brown said. “We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season. So I think it’s not difficult to get everybody in that locker room on the same page right now.”
For any fans thinking about getting tickets to Monday night’s game in hopes of witnessing the Celtics win Banner No. 18, they’ll have to shell out a pretty penny.
The cheapest tickets we found were on Vivid Seats. To seat in the Balcony, you’d still have to spend $1,184. In fact we found several sites with tickets around $1,200 a piece.
Now if you want the VIP experience, you can still buy VIP seating, but it’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
StubHub has seats in the VIP Section, Row A going for $31,501 — EACH!
Those cushy VIP seats are already set up around the parquet for Game 5, and they looks pretty amazing, but $63,000 for a pair of tickets? A lot of fans are probably planning to just watch the game on TV, but they can also head to Canal Street in Boston and take in the party atmosphere right outside the Garden.
Boston police have the barricades ready all over the area because with the team back at home with a chance to win Banner No. 18, this could be quite the celebration Monday night.
Monday’s date, 6/17, has significance for Boston.
June 17 is the date that the Celtics won their last banner in 2008. Boston beat the Los Angeles Lakers on June 17, 2008, by a score of 131-92 to win the NBA Finals 4-2.
617 is also Boston’s area code.