BOSTON – Jason Kidd stared up at the auxiliary scoreboards inside FleetCenter before the Nets’ morning workout. Maybe there was a subliminal message for the Celtics and Nets. Or maybe it was a symbol of desperate hope for the fading Celtics. The scoreboard carried all fives.
Nets 55, Celtics 55. Time remaining :55.5. Period 5. The number 5 carried huge importance for the Celtics who were trying to avoid a four-game sweep. Getting to a Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals was all that mattered to them.
“What’s that mean? Game 5?” Kidd asked. “Maybe it’s a sign. Who knows? It’s probably Danny Ainge. He’s crazy like that. He’d do something like that.”
Maybe Ainge, the Celtics’ new executive director of basketball operations, ordered the little inspiration flashed up on the scoreboards to mess with the Nets’ minds. Maybe not. Maybe an arena worker had a burst of wishful thinking. Either way, few Nets noticed. “I didn’t even see that,” said Byron Scott.
The Nets, of course, were thinking four and out. They had held homecourt for two games and then throttled the Celtics in the third game before moving in for the Game 4 kill here last night for the right to advance to the Eastern Finals against the Detroit-Philadelphia survivor.
“We don’t want this thing to go longer than it needs to. We want to come out and be aggressive and jump on them from the start,” said Kenyon Martin before last night’s game. “We want to come out and play … If you don’t have to go longer, why go long? You want to end it as soon as possible so your body can rest and prepare for your next opponent.”
The Nets remained single-minded in their purpose – to prevent a Game 5 from becoming a reality. They spoke of what Dallas needed to go through in the first round to dispose of Portland. Didn’t need that here, the Nets said. And because the Blazers pushed the Mavs to a seventh game after being down 0-3 it made convincing his team about the importance of closing out the Celtics that much easier for Scott.
“It would be a little more difficult to probably sell it to the guys if it wasn’t for the Dallas-Portland series that just happened so recently,” Scott said. “Portland almost made history.
“So like I’ve always said, you still have to have some type of fear for your opponent and even though we’re three up, this team can still beat you, and if they win one game, what’s to say it won’t go to seven?” continued Scott, who indicated he wanted to hook up with old mentor Pat Riley for some motivation tips. “We’ve got them in a situation right now where I think they’re pretty fragile and we’re pretty strong, and if we come out like we did the last game in the first quarter, then I think this thing could be over pretty soon.”
End it and rest. Maybe play golf for a day. The thought of resting and giving their bodies and minds a day or two off from the pressures of the playoffs seemed mighty appealing. But the main objective, of course, was just being done with another opponent.
“You just want to get it over with. You don’t want it to linger on,” Kidd said. “Rest, I don’t know if it’s about rest, but when you’re in control of something, you want to stay in control.”