May 28

NYK121
IND130
Final

May 29

MIN49-33
OKC68-14
ESPN @12:30 AM UTC

May 30

IND50-32
NYK51-31
TNT @12:00 AM UTC

May 31

OKC68-14
MIN49-33
ESPN @12:30 AM UTC

Celtics glad for their familiar surroundings in Game 7

MILWAUKEE – Like most of his teammates, Marcus Smart was disappointed in the Celtics' Game 6 performance that resulted in a 97-86 loss to the Bucks.

Still, if there’s a silver lining, it’s that Boston will have one shot at moving on to the next round and it’ll come at the TD Garden.

“Everybody knows it’s hard to win in the playoffs on the road,” Smart told NBC Sports Boston. “That’s why home-court advantage is so vital to every team. They [Bucks] played well. We made a couple mistakes here and there down the stretch. The made us pay for it.”

And the Celtics will be looking to return the favor on Saturday night in the winner-take-all Game 7.

“We gotta come back to Boston. We’ll have our crowd behind us, and it’s one more game,” Smart said.

While it’s certainly one of those things that should benefit the Celtics, coach Brad Stevens readily admits he wishes his team wasn’t in this predicament.t

“We didn’t want to be in that position at the end of the day,” Stevens said. “We’re frustrated with the way we played at times, but we give the Bucks credit. They earned the right to beat us in all three games here. They played with great togetherness and great energy.

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Stevens added, “The result is our guys get to experience a Game 7, which again, we didn’t want. Game 7, TD Garden is what you play for. It should be what you’re excited about, what you work all summer and what you work for all year. It’s a blast.”

This is Marcus Morris’ first season with the Celtics, but he has some familiarity with Game 7s in Boston after having heard about it from his twin brother Markieff, whose Washington Wizards pushed Boston to a seven-game series last season that the Celtics managed to survive.

Like Smart, Morris would have loved to have ended the series tonight.

And the team’s confidence remains high with a simple approach to Game 7.

“The approach is by any means necessary, get the win,” Morris said. “We get to go home and play in front of our fans,” Morris said. “A game seven in Boston, I heard is really crazy so I’m excited.”

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