Can Celtics or Rockets do that’s never been done?

Boston Celtics’ veteran duo of Kevin Garnett (left) and Paul Pierce will have a big role to play if Celtics harbour any hope of getting past New York Knicks in the playoff series. (Reuters)

Hunter Felt/New York

Now “being left for dead” is usually just a cliche, but that’s exactly how the New York Knicks felt about the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. Before the start of Game Five at Madison Square Garden, word came out that Knicks players were wearing articles of black clothing to commemorate what they were convinced would end up being a funeral for the 2012-13 Boston Celtics.

To be fair, it looked prescient when the Knicks began the game with a 11-0 run, but Boston was able to bounce back, eventually beating the Knicks 92-86. Now the Celtics are headed back home, where they play significantly better than on the road, for a crucial Game Six on Friday. After the unexpected loss, the Knicks’ JR Smith, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year who had a disastrous shooting night, admitted that the Knicks’ strategy had backfired, saying: “We was going to a funeral but it looks like we got buried.”

As a New York based team they really should have known better than counting out a Boston team out after putting them in a 0-3 hole. This series between the Celtics and the Knicks has started to feel a little like the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees won the first three games of that series, including a road blowout in Game Three, before the Red Sox rattled off four straight wins to become the first team in MLB history to pull off such a comeback. If the Celtics need inspiration to do what no other team in their sport’s history has ever done, they need to only take a quick trip to Fenway Park.

A few hours after the Celtics somewhat shockingly extended their series against the Knicks to six games, the Houston Rockets followed suit when they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-100 at Chesapeake Arena. If the Thunder have struggled to put away the Rockets after starting the series with three straight victories, they at least have a valid excuse. Without point guard Russell Westbrook, who the Thunder lost to a meniscus tear midway through the series, the Thunder look and play like a completely different team than the one who clinched the top spot in the Western Conference.

With Westbrook out, the once formidable Thunder has become Kevin Durant and a ragtag group of role players, lacking a strong second option on offense. Now Durant, considered by many the second best player in the league, is quite capable of putting his team on his back and carrying them through the playoffs, but there are signs that it is affecting his game. A major reason the Rockets were able to win on Wednesday night was that they managed to keep Durant scoreless in the fourth quarter.

If Westbrook’s injury had happened last postseason, the Thunder could have relied on James Harden, normally their number one option of the bench, to pick up much of the offensive slack. However, the Thunder traded Harden to this Houston Rockets team before the start of the regular season, something which would make a series loss doubly painful for Thunder fans. Imagine the possibility of Harden himself leading the Rockets to victory by capitalizing on the fact that he’s no longer on their roster. There’s some amount of irony in that, or at least irony if we’re going by the Alanis definition.

Still both of these teams have a legitimate shot to make NBA history by becoming the first team to win a playoff series after starting out 0-3. Considering how many teams make the NBA playoffs though, it’s a tad surprising that a team hasn’t accomplished this already.

Eventually a NBA team will come all the way back from 0-3 to win a playoff series. So, who knows, this could be the year. First, of course, one of these teams has to force a Game 7, something only three NBA teams have ever done in their position. With the Celtics and Rockets both heading back home for Game 6, the pressure entirely on their opponents, that list could grow longer in the next few days. (Guardian News Service)