For a second consecutive week, the Celtics have added a highly respected veteran assistant coach from a rival. After reportedly hiring 76ers assistant Sam Cassell last Sunday, the Celtics are finalizing a deal to hire Bucks assistant Charles Lee to be their new lead assistant coach under head coach Joe Mazzulla, according to a report Sunday from ESPN.

The 38-year-old Lee was reportedly a finalist for the head-coaching openings in Detroit and Toronto, but when both of those franchises went in a different direction – the Pistons hired Monty Williams and on Saturday, the Raptors went with Darko Rajakovic – the Celtics swooped in for Lee, who has reportedly been on their radar for years.

Lee was an assistant to Mike Budenholzer for the last nine seasons, including the last four in Milwaukee before the Bucks fired Budenholzer following their first-round loss to Miami. Last season, Lee became Budenholzer’s lead assistant after Darvin Ham left to become the head coach of the Lakers and he helped guide the Bucks to the top seed in the Eastern Conference and the best regular season record in the NBA.

Lee went undrafted as a guard in the 2006 NBA draft before embarking on a short playing career overseas that included stops in Israel and Germany. He then began his coaching career, first with his alma mater Bucknell as an assistant coach before transitioning to the NBA with the Hawks under Budenholzer.

Report: Sam Cassell to join Celtics’ coaching staff as assistant under Joe Mazzulla

The Celtics expected a revamp of their coaching staff and have made it a clear priority to surround Mazzulla with more experience in the early days of this offseason. The Celtics essentially lost three coaching voices last season with Ime Udoka’s suspension and ultimate dismissal, Will Hardy’s departure to Utah and Damon Stoudamire’s midseason departure to Georgia Tech, and never replaced them.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said at his end-of-season press conference that they tried to replace those coaches but couldn’t make it happen.

“I think one of the things is obviously we had a change in coaches five days before the season started,” Stevens said. “And we did try to add to the staff at that time. But you’re also weighing, like, you’ve got a lot of people that are really talented in here. I’m sure you’ll see, as we’ve talked about, our assistants this year and our assistants pretty much every year are going to be called and asked by a lot of teams. So we have a good staff, and I think that’s one thing that kind of gets lost in the shuffle, because we did have a lot of people that we lost, too.

“But the staff we had was good. And we did try. Losing Damon in March we again tried. But those timings are tough for people to up and move or up and join a new team that they don’t know anything about or don’t know. But that was just to be supplemental, because we believed in the people that were here. So, moving forward we’ll have at least … we’ll see how everything shakes itself out with what the staff looks like. But we’ll at least have one addition that we’ll make now that we have a summer to make it, and then we’ll go from there.”

Stevens said then that the Celtics would try to add at least one assistant with NBA experience. Now they have two. There could be more changes and additions coming as the Celtics are expected to lose Ben Sullivan – who was Mazzulla’s lead assistant after Stoudamire left – who is rumored to be joining Udoka in Houston, and other assistants are reportedly on the move.

Mazzulla’s inexperience as a rookie head coach was exposed at points during the playoffs and it was clear he needed some more guidance with a depleted coaching staff, especially after the departure of Stoudamire who had extensive experience as a player and coach in the NBA. But the additions of Cassell and Lee – two veteran voices were each reportedly finalists for head coaching openings – just weeks into the offseason should arm Mazzulla with plenty of help as he heads into his second season in charge.

“We failed,” Jaylen Brown said after the Celtics’ Game 7 loss to the Heat.

“We failed,” agreed Al Horford. “Because we wanted to win a championship. That was our goal.”

Certainly, the Celtics – with the most talented and deepest roster in the NBA, and the clear title favorites after their NBA Finals run a year ago – fell short of expectations. The season will be remembered as a huge missed opportunity after a path was cleared for them to return to the championship round only to fall to the eighth-seeded Heat. Fighting back from an 0-3 series deficit in the Eastern Conference will go down as a footnote.

Just like their season, it was impressive, but just not good enough.

As the Celtics continue to lick their wounds and watch the Finals from home, the final grades are in from a promising but ultimately disappointing year:

Coaching/Management

Joe Mazzulla
Regular season: B+
Playoffs: C

Thrown into an impossible situation, promoted as a first-year head coach after Ime Udoka’s sudden season-long suspension days before training camp, Mazzulla did a good job keeping the locker room together and performed admirably throughout the regular season despite his questionable timeout usage and several growing pains. But there was too much of a reliance on 3-point shooting and a lost defensive identity that was ultimately the Celtics’ downfall in the playoffs. Mazzulla’s inexperienced and flaws were exposed in the postseason and some poor decisions cost the Celtics critical games, though he should get some credit for helping the team off the mat in the Eastern Conference Finals and nearly overcoming a 0-3 series deficit. His shortcomings, however, put the C’s in that position to begin with.

Brad Stevens
Grade: B+

The C’s president of basketball operations deserves praise for building a roster that was seemingly championship ready and the favorites to do so. The offseason trade for Malcolm Brogdon was a great deal that addressed a key weakness that hurt the Celtics in the NBA Finals a year ago, and the Derrick White trade from a year ago proved especially shrewd. It’s hard to find much fault in Stevens with how this season went. But a failure to add to Mazzulla’s coaching staff after the midseason departure of respected assistant Damon Stoudamire ultimately loomed large for the rookie head coach, even if Stevens said they tried.

Starters

Jayson Tatum
Regular season: A-
Playoffs: B+

The image of the Celtics superstar turning and spraining his ankle on the first play of Game 7 against the Heat before playing through it as a shell of himself will represent a great what-if of this season. Tatum was brilliant for a lot of this season. He surged out of the gate and became an MVP frontrunner. He saved the Celtics with a signature 51-point performance in Game 7 over the Sixers. He was deservedly a first-team All-NBA selection. His overall game and playmaking improved. But the 25-year-old couldn’t quite put it all together for the ultimate breakthrough. Extended shooting woes led to him fading a bit in the second half, and his postseason run left something to be desired, with a painful end.

Jaylen Brown
Regular season: B+
Playoffs: C

The enduring memory – at least for the start of this summer – of Brown’s season will be his Game 7 dud, when he coughed up eight turnovers and had one of his worst performances at the worst time. From a macro view, Brown evolved into his best season yet, posting career highs in several offensive categories as he cemented himself among the league’s best players with a second All-Star nod and his first career All-NBA selection as a member of the second team, which could earn him a big payday this summer. But after he was the Celtics’ best player in the Finals last June, Brown shrunk on the biggest stage this year with a woeful Eastern Conference Finals, where his weaknesses as a ball-handler and playmaker were exposed and led to an early exit.

Marcus Smart
Regular season: B
Playoffs: B

The reigning Defensive Player of the Year, by his own admission, took a step back on that end this season, which contributed to the Celtics’ inconsistent play on that end even if he certainly wasn’t 100 percent healthy – he usually isn’t – for most of the season and the playoffs. He picked up his defense in the playoffs, and he had some brilliant performances on both ends of the floor. Smart, more than he ever has in his career, seemed to really understand his role offensively as a facilitator and pass-first guard to set up Tatum and Brown. But he couldn’t rescue them from the stagnation and poor late-game execution that led to some painful playoff losses.

Al Horford
Regular season: B
Playoffs: C+

The Celtics did their best to save the 36-year-old Horford by resting him on the second night of back to backs during the regular season as he remained a starter of a team that won 57 games and a fixture of Mazzulla’s high-powered, shooting-focused offense. Horford shot a career-best 44.6 percent from downtown as he made a home in the corner. But even with the extra rest, it seemed that Horford wore down a bit over the course of the postseason. He turned back the clock with some standout defensive performances against Joel Embiid in the second round, but looked like he ran out of gas after, as his 3-point shooting dipped to 29.8 percent over the three playoff rounds.

Derrick White
Regular season: A
Playoffs: B+

After noticeably and admittedly being hesitant after joining the Celtics at the 2022 trade deadline, White was comfortable and often Boston’s third-best player this season behind Tatum and Brown. His defense was a constant, as he was deservedly named to the All-Defensive second team, and he routinely stepped up on the offensive end when the Celtics needed him. He played in every game this season and was the Celtics’ most consistent player. And while he seemed to disappear during the second round, White is the biggest reason why the Celtics came back to force a Game 7 against the Heat. It’s fair to wonder how the C’s would have fared without White this season.

Bench

Malcolm Brogdon
Regular season: A
Playoffs: B-

In simple terms, Brogdon did what he was brought to do. Acquired last July to give the Celtics a scoring and playmaking punch off the bench that they sorely needed, Brogdon sacrificed playing time and happily accepted his role. He took on the responsibility of leading Boston’s second unit and gave the C’s an added scoring threat – whether it was strong drives to the rim or shooting a career-best 44.4 percent from 3-point range – as he was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. It wasn’t all roses for Brogdon. He stood to improve defensively and he suffered an injury at the worst time that made him a non-factor in the Eastern Conference Finals. But for the most part, he produced.

Robert Williams
Regular season: B
Playoffs: B

When healthy, Williams is one of the Celtics’ biggest X-factors and he showed that in spurts this year, none more important than when he turned the Sixers series around after being inserted back into the starting lineup for Game 6. But that remains Williams’ biggest issue: Staying healthy. The center missed 47 regular season games – including the first 29 games of the year due to his knee surgery in September – and the C’s were very cautious with his workload throughout the season. His impact was undeniable, as he produced a 105.0 defensive rating and plus-11.4 net rating, both team-bests during the regular season.

Grant Williams
Regular season: C+
Playoffs: B

What a fascinating season for Williams, who played well to start the season before falling out of the rotation during the second half, only for him to come back and produce some pivotal playoff performances. It was certainly an underwhelming year for the fourth-year forward, who basically bet on himself as a looming restricted free agent but wasn’t as consistent as he needed to be. But he stayed professional through uncertainty and frustration of losing minutes and showed several flashes of the impact he can make. He was a 45 percent 3-point shooter in the playoffs and his defensive versatility paid dividends in a few playoff games.

Sam Hauser
Regular season: C+
Playoffs: Incomplete

After Danilo Gallinari tore his ACL in August – and ultimately missed the entire season – Hauser emerged to fill a role as a shooter off the bench. The second-year wing started the season hot and remained in the rotation throughout most of the season but his production declined – including a long slump in the middle of the year – and opponents hunted him defensively. Though he sometimes performed admirably in those moments, Mazzulla ultimately didn’t trust him enough to give him significant minutes in the playoffs.

Payton Pritchard
Regular season: C+
Playoffs: Incomplete

Pritchard fell completely out of the rotation thanks to the arrival of Brogdon and he voiced his frustrations about his role throughout the season. Still, the third-year guard maintained professionalism despite logging a career-low 13.4 minutes per game and seemed to produce more times than not whenever Mazzulla turned to him for a spark off the bench or when the Celtics were shorthanded.

Blake Griffin
Regular season: B-
Playoffs: Incomplete

Well past his prime, Griffin was added just before the season to give the C’s some more frontcourt depth. He gave them spot starts and bursts of energy throughout the season – he finished with a team-best 15 charges drawn– and his impact was probably most felt as a valuable locker room presence. It seemed that he fit perfectly the role the Celtics viewed for him.

Luke Kornet
Regular season: B-
Playoffs: Incomplete

Kornet was extremely serviceable and valuable as a depth piece in Boston’s frontcourt with Robert Williams missing significant time and Horford missing back to backs.

Mike Muscala
Regular season: Incomplete
Playoffs: Incomplete

Acquired from Oklahoma City at the trade deadline to give the Celtics more size and shooting, Muscala never cracked the rotation.

Incomplete: Justin Champagnie, JD Davison, Mfiondu Kabengele

Williams’ surgery repaired a tear of the radial collateral ligament of the third metacarpo-phalangeal joint on his left hand. The Celtics said the forward is expected to make a full return to basketball activities in 6-8 weeks, which would put him in line to return in late July or early August. He’ll make a full recovery before training camp begins in late September.

According to a report Friday from ESPN, Williams suffered the injury in March and played through it as the Celtics advanced to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Williams, who also suffered an elbow injury at one point this season, had an underwhelming fourth season despite finishing with career bests of 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game, as he fell out of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation during the second half of the season. His playing time was uncertain throughout the Celtics’ playoff run, but he pushed through to produce some important performances off the bench. He shot 45 percent from 3-point range while displaying tough and versatile defense in the postseason.

Williams’ future is one of the biggest storylines of the Celtics’ offseason. He’s a restricted free agent, which means the Celtics can match any offer he signs with another team. His interest around the league will be fascinating to watch after a turbulent season.

Sam Cassell – who was a member of the Celtics’ championship team in 2008 – will join Boston’s coaching staff as an assistant under Joe Mazzulla, according to a report Sunday from The Athletic.

Cassell, who played 15 years in the NBA as a point guard and was a three-time champion, has been an assistant coach for the last 14 years, including the last nine under Doc Rivers in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Rivers was fired by the 76ers last month after the Celtics eliminated them in the second round, and Cassell was reportedly in the mix to replace him before Nick Nurse was hired.

Cassell is very highly regarded in basketball coaching circles and it seems likely he’ll be the Celtics’ top assistant under Mazzulla, whose coaching staff is being replenished after he worked shorthanded in his first season as a head coach.

The Celtics lost top assistant Damon Stoudamire in March, and he was never replaced despite attempts in doing so. On Friday, Ime Udoka revealed he intends to hire away multiple Celtics assistants – who had initially followed him to Boston in 2021 – to work under him with the Rockets. Ben Sullivan, who was Boston’s top assistant after Stoudamire departed, Mike Moser and Garrett Jackson are reportedly leaving to join Udoka’s staff in Houston, and Celtics assistant Aaron Miles is also reportedly drawing interest for a new job.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said Thursday at his end-of-season press conference that the team was going to add at least one assistant with NBA experience and the 53-year-old Cassell fits the bill. Paul Pierce, who was a teammate of Cassell on the 2008 title team, endorsed him during a Showtime podcast last week.

“These cats went to the Finals,” Pierce said in a recent episode of the “Truth and Ticket” podcast. “They were one game away from the Finals. You’ve just got to take a deep breath and say, ‘Where do we get better at?’ It starts at the top. …

“You can’t keep bringing in new voices. I’m going to add to what I got right now. I’ve got to add to it. It’s already good. I’ve got to add to it. It’s already there. So, I’m bringing Mazzulla back but maybe I’m bringing in a veteran coach, like Sam Cassell. Some influence on the bench. Respect. A champion. Been a coach. Understands what it takes.”

Game 1 of the NBA Finals was roughly eight hours away. But instead of getting ready to head to TD Garden for it, the president of basketball operations was taking questions about a failed Celtics season.

“We were 48 minutes away from doing our pregame shootaround press conference today in the Finals,” Stevens said. “So there was a lot that went right and we can’t lose sight of that. But we also are always going to be thinking about how to best move it forward and pursue what we’re all trying to pursue.”

The typically mild-mannered Stevens, expectedly, wasn’t overreacting to a season that fell short of expectations. Certainly, a lot went right for the Celtics this season as they finished on the doorstep of the NBA Finals. But there is certainly work to be done this summer as the Celtics continue pursuing a championship.

Will there be major changes for this team? Likely not. But there is plenty to evaluate and retool for a championship-level roster to better position it for a championship next season and some key questions to answer for now and the future as this franchise moves forward. A look at some of the pressing storylines facing the Celtics this summer:

1. How will the coaching staff look?

This is likely where the biggest Celtics shakeup will be. It’s no secret that Joe Mazzulla was thrown into the deep end and struggled at times in his first season as a head coach. The C’s remain confident in him being the leader of this group moving forward but they know he needs more support, too.

Mazzulla’s coaching staff was depleted this season after Ime Udoka was dismissed, Will Hardy left, and the mid-season departure of Damon Stoudamire. The lack of veteran help on the bench seemed to be costly during critical moments of the playoffs. That will be addressed this offseason, as Stevens said the C’s will pursue a veteran assistant, and Mazzulla will have full say on that choice. It could be more depending on other departures. With a full season of head coaching experience under Mazzulla’s belt – not to mention a full summer to plan – and a fortified coaching staff, the Celtics should be in much better shape coaching-wise next season.

“Joe’s experience now, you could probably measure in dog years, right?” Stevens said. “Because now he’s been in three Eastern Conference Finals and a Finals. And he’s been now the head coach throughout one of those runs. I mean, that’s an experience in and of itself. I tried to prepare him for what it was going to feel like after each game win or lose. And I know how that feels for those guys. That’s one of the reasons why I always talk about how much I respect Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum) because the same thing, right? After every game that doesn’t go your way, they’re going to be dissected. And the further you go, the more it is.

“And so you know that you could have a great regular season and when you’re playing when no one else is playing, everyone is watching. So the more that we can, again, be there to support.”

2. How does the Celtics’ future look if Jaylen Brown accepts a supermax extension?

Reading between the lines of Stevens’ presser, it seems likely the Celtics will offer the supermax extension to Jaylen Brown after July 1. Brown, fresh off the Celtics’ Game 7 loss, was unsure what to expect with the extension but it would be stunning if he rejected the five-year, roughly $295 million extension if it’s offered. No other team can offer him nearly that much if he opts to hit unrestricted free agency next summer.

If the Celtics and Brown do agree on the extension, key decisions about the franchise’s future will come into focus. It’s expected that Jayson Tatum will receive a supermax extension that’s worth roughly $318 million when he’s eligible next summer. That would mean that more than $600 million will be committed to Boston’s two stars. And, assuming the league’s new collective bargaining agreement becomes official soon, that may eventually create challenges for Stevens to build a championship roster around them, given new salary cap restrictions.

Those tougher decisions would come down the line, though. There are still two more seasons before both Tatum and Brown’s extensions would factor in at the same time – and accordingly take up nearly 70 percent of the salary cap – which buys Stevens time to assess a Celtics future led by Tatum and Brown, who could certainly lead them to a title by then.

“Every team’s going to have to make tough decisions every year, right?” Stevens said. “But at the end of the day, we love our foundation, we love our core and that’s really our focus and priority.”

3. Will Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard be back?

The futures of the Celtics’ 2019 and 2020 first-round picks in Boston are certainly murky as the offseason begins. It’s hard to predict Grant Williams, who is a restricted free agent this summer, and what his value may be after falling out of the Celtics’ rotation during the second half of the season before re-emerging in the playoffs and showcasing his ability as a valuable 3-and-D player during the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics can match any offer that Williams receives this summer, but it’s unclear how much the forward will command after such a turbulent season. The C’s certainly value Williams’ role as a versatile wing off the bench, but how far would they go to retain him?

“He is a good player who was on a really deep team,” Stevens said. “And with that, with the addition of (Malcolm) Brogdon last year, that was going to require that guys that had gotten a little bit more opportunity weren’t going to get as much. And that obviously hit a few of our players, Payton (Pritchard) included, and Grant was another one of them. But everybody around the league knows that Grant can add value to a winning team. We know that.”

Pritchard is an interesting case. The guard still has one season remaining on his rookie contract, but he was vocal this season about his desire for a bigger role after being buried in the backcourt behind Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Brogdon. Pritchard remained professional throughout a challenging situation and performed well when given the opportunity. He’s beloved by his teammates and the Celtics like him as a player.

But if they bring back the same backcourt, it seems likely they would explore a trade with Prtichard this summer to do right by him in his career as he seeks a second contract.

“Everybody loves basketball. It’s a hard job. You get paid a lot to handle those situations, but I really feel for a guy like him because there are guys that work at it and there’s guys that are obsessed with it,” Stevens said. “He’s obsessed with it. That’s kind of his personality. He works at it. He’s a really good player. As I’ve told him many times this year, everybody knows you’re a really good player, not only in this building but around the league. They understand your circumstances that we have Derrick White, that we have Marcus Smart, that we have Malcolm Brogdon. That in the playoffs, you only go seven or eight deep in a lot of cases.

“But we don’t know how that’s all gonna shake itself out moving forward. I’m a big Payton fan, I believe in him, and everybody here does and we’ll see how everything shakes itself out again. But he’s a good player.”

4. How will the Celtics fortify frontcourt and rest of roster?

After playing in just 35 games in the regular season, Robert Williams stayed healthy and didn’t miss a playoff game. He was key to turning the second round around when he was reinserted into the starting lineup and he showed flashes of what made him so good last season.

“He’s a huge part of our opportunity to be great,” Stevens said. “I think that’s obvious.”

Going forward, though, the Celtics may need to add some more reliable reinforcements to their frontcourt. Al Horford had a good season, but he’s not getting any younger. He turned 37 on Saturday and after resting on the second night of back to backs all season, he performed exceptionally well against Joel Embiid and the 76ers in the second round but seemed to run out of gas in the East finals. Robert Williams did play every playoff game but has an injury history. Can the Celtics count on him to be available?

Luke Kornet was a serviceable backup big during the regular season but didn’t crack the rotation in the playoffs. Danilo Gallinari is set to return next season after missing 2022-23 with a torn ACL but he turns 35 in August and the Celtics could stand to get some youth in their frontcourt both for the future and to help spell Horford and Williams.

The Celtics could benefit from adding a player who can provide some toughness – both mentally and physically – after they suffered from lapses of focus and intensity throughout the playoffs, something they know they need to address. The Celtics hold the No. 35 pick in this month’s draft, and maybe they can use that in a trade package to bring in another quality bench player. Either way, Stevens has no shortage of decisions to make as he fills out the roster and evaluates ways he can bring the Celtics over the top next season.

Though the Celtics failed in their goal of winning a championship, they view Mazzulla as the man for the job going forward. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, not surprisingly, confirmed Thursday that Mazzulla will remain the head coach.

“I think when you consider the position he was thrust into and the overall accomplishments of the group, I thought he did a really good job,” Stevens said. “When you look at it in the big picture and having a team that was second in offense, second in defense, won 57 games and (had) a chance to go to the NBA Finals on your home court, there’s a lot of direction and organization that goes into that. I thought that he did a good job.”

The Celtics have remained confident in Mazzulla since September, when they put him into an almost impossible task in getting the Celtics ready for training camp with nearly no time, a job Stevens – who was once an NBA coach who needed an entire summer of planning – said was Thursday was “remarkable.” Mazzulla gave the Celtics enough confidence to give him a contract extension in February before he ever coached a playoff game.

The playoffs were certainly a challenge for Mazzulla, who admitted costly mistakes along the way. Outsiders called for his job, and the noise was loud after the Celtics fell into a deep 0-3 series hole in the Eastern Conference Finals. But in helping the C’s respond to force a Game 7, he showed many of the qualities that made the Celtics comfortable with him throughout a mostly successful season.

“Everybody’s going to overreact to the best players and coaches after every game,” Stevens said. “That’s always the way it is. We know that going in so we have to be able to judge things on the whole. And he’s a terrific leader. He’ll only get better at anything that he can learn from this year because he’s constantly trying to learn. And he’s accountable. Those leadership qualities are hard to find. And I know they’re easy to talk about, but when you can show all those through the expectations and the microscope that he was under, that’s hard to do.

“And so, yeah, was he perfect? Would he like to have some moments back? Every coach would. Even the coaches nobody talks about would. We all that have coached know how hard that is.”

While Mazzulla was imperfect, Stevens recognized that they need to continue to support him moving forward. The Celtics virtually lost three coaches from their staff this season. Udoka was dismissed. Will Hardy departed before the season to be the head coach of the Jazz. In March, top assistant Damon Stoudamire – who Mazzulla relied heavily on as a rookie – suddenly left to become Georgia Tech’s head coach.

All three were incredibly valuable to the Celtics’ operation last season, and none were replaced. Stevens said he tried to add to the staff before the season and when Stoudamire left, but it was difficult. The Celtics moved forward with Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles, Tony Dobbins and DJ MacLeay as Mazzulla’s assistants.

“Those timings are tough for people to up and move or up and join a new team that they don’t know anything about or don’t know,” Stevens said of trying to bring in an assistant before the season and during. “But that was just to be supplemental, because we believed in the people that were here.”

Stevens said the Celtics will add at least one assistant who has significant NBA experience to the staff this summer. One candidate could be Stephen Silas, who was seen at the Auerbach Center the day after he was fired as the Rockets’ head coach in April. They could add more to the staff if any other assistants leave. Sullivan and Miles were part of Udoka’s staff and could potentially follow him to Houston. Either way, Stevens said Mazzulla will lead the charge on that front.

“We’ll see how everything shakes itself out with what the staff looks like,” Stevens said. “But we’ll at least have one addition that we’ll make now that we have a summer to make it, and then we’ll go from there.”

Stevens didn’t want to cast any blame to Mazzulla about how this season went, which was certainly below their expectations ultimately. Instead of hosting Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, the Celtics were hosting an end-of-season press conference sooner than they hoped. But Stevens wasn’t discouraged. He was encouraged by how the season went given the difficult circumstances to start the season, but recognized the need to get better this summer.

“Outside of our walls, we can do the dissecting of whose fault things are,” Stevens said. “Inside of our walls, it’s we have 60 people in basketball operations and we’ve all gotta do the best we can to get the results we want. And we all share it when it goes our way and we share it when it doesn’t go our way. And that’s gotta start with all of us. We have to all look at it that way. And I’m appreciative of our coaches being that way. I admire our players being that way.

“It is not easy to get up there and be accountable and to take ownership and know that all through it you accomplished a lot to get to the point where we were. So I have a great deal of admiration for their willingness to do that. And I think it speaks to the quality of character we have in here. We just have to be a little bit better.”

Brown earned an All-NBA second team selection this season, which means that beginning on July 1, the Celtics have the opportunity to lock in their star to a five-year supermax extension worth about $295 million, which would start in the 2024-25 season. Asked if he would offer that extension, Stevens couldn’t answer directly but expressed his commitment to the two-time All-Star he once coached.

“I’ve had nothing but great conversations with Jaylen, but we can’t talk about all that stuff,” Stevens said. “I’m not allowed to talk about A, the contract details, let alone the extension because it’s not of that time right now. His window is between July 1 and October or whatever it is. But I can say without a doubt, we want Jaylen to be here and he’s a big part of us and we believe in him and I’m thankful for him.

“I’m really thankful for when those guys have success, they come back to work and when they get beat, they own it and they come back to work. So I know that’s what they’re about and that’s hard to find. … Those qualities, they aren’t for everybody. Jaylen had a great year, All-NBA year. He’s a big part of us moving forward in our eyes.”

Brown, after the Celtics’ Game 7 loss on Monday, said he’s unsure how contract extension talks will play out this summer when he was asked what his expectations were. It will be the biggest storyline of the Celtics’ offseason, especially given the uncertainty of Brown’s desire to stay in Boston long term after being non-committal about his future this season.

“I don’t even really know how to answer that question right now, to be honest,” Brown said. “My thought process is take it one day at a time, focus on getting better. Focus on what the future holds and see where we are from there. I guess I don’t know really know how to answer that.”

What’s next for Grant?

It was certainly an interesting season for Grant Williams, who did not come to terms with the Celtics on a new contract in October before what became a bumpy and frustrating season for the fourth-year forward.

Williams started the season strong, but fell out of favor and out of the rotation during the second half. After becoming such an important player in his first three seasons, his minutes were never guaranteed as the playoffs began but seemed to come through whenever he was given an opportunity. He eventually earned some trust back and was key for the Celtics as they fought back to even the Eastern Conference Finals. But his future with the franchise remains cloudy entering the summer.

Williams will be a restricted free agent, which means the Celtics can match any offer he gets from another team. It’s unclear exactly how much he could command after an up-and-down season – earlier this season, it was reported Williams will seek a deal that will earn him around $20 million per season – but he could certainly depart if the C’s aren’t willing to pay up for him.

“Grant’s a good player,” Stevens said. “Grant has been a good player. I can’t talk about, as you know, with Jaylen, Grant, or whoever, I can’t talk about details of contracts and specifically with Grant’s own restricted free agency, all those are down the road right now as far as when we can discuss those things with him or with you. But he is a good player who was on a really deep team. And with that, with the addition of (Malcolm) Brogdon last year, that was going to require that guys that had gotten a little bit more opportunity weren’t going to get as much. And that obviously hit a few of our players, Payton (Pritchard) included, and Grant was another one of them.

“But everybody around the league knows that Grant can add value to a winning team. We know that. We’re big fans of his and I thought he played, did a lot of good things when he got the opportunity. But I don’t think it was an easy roster to always decide who would play because we did have a lot of good players.”

Limping to the finish

Malcolm Brogdon, who suffered a partial tear of a tendon in his right forearm, was a shell of himself in the Eastern Conference Finals and acknowledged he may need surgery this offseason. That determination hasn’t been made yet.

“We’re going to put our heads together and he’ll put his head together with his agent and figure out what he wants to do with regard to next steps,” Stevens said.

Jayson Tatum suffered a left ankle sprain on the first play of Game 7 and was nowhere close to himself. He played through the injury as he logged 42 minutes and scored just 14 points. Stevens said he was doing “a little bit better.” Stevens said Derrick White suffered just a hyperextension and small sprain in his right knee in Game 7 that forced him out in the fourth quarter.

Stevens didn’t want to make excuses for the sudden injury toll the Celtics took to end their season.

“We had a number of guys by the end, but probably no more than every other team does,” Stevens said. “So certainly not excuses. … We’ve got a couple of other things that we’ll have to address and look at here moving forward, but that’s no different than anybody else that plays till May 29 or whatever.”

He wagered $50 on the Celtics to win the NBA Finals and $50 on the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup.

Turns out, the house always wins. Even when the speaker doesn’t.

The NBA Finals begin tonight … in Denver.

The Stanley Cup Finals begin Saturday … in Las Vegas.

That was not supposed to happen.

TD Garden was double-booked.

NBA Finals on Thursday.

Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday.

NBA Finals on Sunday.

Stanley Cup Finals on Monday.

The Score of Supremacy enters its second act.

Boston reclaims its throne as the Sports Hub of the Universe.

The Brady Effect, finally, purged from our ethos.

Cue the … “Price Is Right” horn.

Boston’s road was wide open. But the bridge got washed out.

Two gut-wrenching Game 7 choke jobs later, we’re stuck with 101 days of the Red Sox.

The Patriots open at home against the Eagles on Sept. 10 with 17 weeks of three-and-out.

Boston’s title drought will celebrate its fifth birthday on Feb. 3 if the Red Sox do not win the World Series.

Big “if” there.

Today is Day 1,579.

The possibility of a double Duck Boat parade in the early-summer sun warmed the Bay State all winter. The victorious Celtics and triumphant Bruins rolling down Boylston Street in joint mayhem. The glare of the Larry O’Brien Trophy and Stanley Cup shining upon a few million blind drunks.

It was all a dream.

Blades went into hibernation a month ago.

The “Greatest NHL Team Ever” blew a 3-1 series lead against the No. 8-seed Panthers in Round 1. The mighty Boston Bruins got iced by a goalie born in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And cowed by the swagger and skill of Matthew Tkachuk.

The Curse of the Presidents’ Trophy remains more lethal than John Wick. Of the last 20 winners, only two have won the Stanley Cup. That’s a kill rate of 90%. Dogs included.

The Celtics fooled themselves and everyone else, except the Miami Heat. Boston ran out of second chances against Miami, after being pushed to Game 6 against Atlanta and Game 7 against Philly.

It’s unfair to call these Celtics “frauds.” They never pretended to be anything but a talent-heavy team lacking the “grit” necessary to win a ring.

By now, your head is spinning with trade talk, new-coach talk, and variations of the roster that somehow will be the difference next year.

The Celtics need a heart and soul transplant. Plus, an adult in the room with an NBA championship ring.

Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown just dribbled the ball off his foot. And Jayson Tatum is complaining to the refs.

Winning has been purged from the Celtics organization’s DNA.

One title in 37 years does that.

They are now the NBA’s version of “Glass Joe.” Can’t take a punch.

Lucky’s black eye may last for years.

The last bit of “Celtics Pride” perished Monday night.

With Pat Riley watching, the Miami Heat received the Bob Cousy Trophy and Jimmy Butler hoisted the Larry Bird Trophy. All this occurred on a TD Garden parquet floor that features the number “6” in honor of Bill Russell and the signature of Red Auerbach.

It was unholy. Before the Celtics think about raising Banner 18, they need to chop up the wood, throw it into a shredder, and burn the remains. A Greek Orthodox priest can perform an exorcism to purify it all.

Monday’s besmirchment came nearly a year after the Golden State Warriors celebrated an NBA championship on the same cursed timber. Steph Curry was given a trophy named for Russell as series MVP.

When you hear talk about “blowing up” the Celtics or Bruins, you might want to include TD Garden.

In addition to Game 7, the Celtics dropped two at home to open their series against the Heat before their failed impersonation of the 2004 Red Sox. They are 11-12 in their past 23 home playoff games.

The Bruins lost three home games, including Game 7, to the Panthers. The Bruins have lost seven Game 7s in their current building and watched two teams (Chicago and St. Louis) claim the Stanley Cup on that tainted ice.

How about a Little Wrecking Ball of Hate?

Boston can now boast that it is the only city ever to lose Game 7s to NBA and NHL No. 8 seeds at home in the same season.

The NBA Finals swing back to South Beach next week. That’s familiar turf given the Heat’s success of the past 20 years.

The Stanley Cup is either going to be won just off the Las Vegas Strip or behind a sprawling mall in Sunrise, Fla. Hardly Original Six territory.

The biggest question for both the Celtics and Bruins is: “Now what?”

In terms of leadership, roster make-up, and the franchises themselves.

How do you sell the Celtics next season? Will “Unfinished Business” become “Risky Business?”

How about: “No Guts. No Glory.”

Or: “5 Guys … Disappear.”

The Bruins will bamboozle the masses with endless chatter about it being their 100th season.

When you’ve won just one Stanley Cup in 51 years, ancient history is all you’ve got.

Those under 45 have no real memory of the dynastic Celtics of the 1980s. Add another decade for the Big Bad Bruins of the 1970s.

The lasting impact from this season for both the Bruins and the Celtics will be an impossibility for their fan bases to ever take the regular season seriously again.

Even if both go 82-0.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Instead, the Celtics were back in their locker room, packing up for the summer while the Warriors celebrated a championship and then, a year later, the Heat stood on a podium at Boston’s mid-court after advancing to the NBA Finals on Monday night.

Both instances were a stark reminder of the Celtics’ surprising failures at home, a troubling trend that has haunted them over the last two postseasons. Once hallowed ground, the Garden has become a house of horrors for the Celtics. Over their last two playoff springs, the C’s have a combined 11-12 record in Boston. That’s the most home playoff losses in a two-year span in NBA history.

That’s simply unforgivable, especially for a championship contender.

“This is difficult because this building for so many years has been so special,” Al Horford said after Monday night’s loss. “It’s very disappointing losing these games here. We talked about it as a group, about ways to coming out and having that edge at home and being great and getting the crowd to rally behind us.”

But as much as they talked about it, it hasn’t quite clicked for this group at the Garden.

Their most puzzling losses of the playoffs came at home. They dropped a potentially clinching Game 5 to the Hawks – who were without star guard Dejounte Murray – in the first round after blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. They lost Game 1 to the 76ers when they didn’t have MVP Joel Embiid, then Game 5 of that series in an environment that resembled a January game against the Hornets.

The theme continued into the Eastern Conference Finals, where they dropped the first two games to the eighth-seeded Heat after holding double-digit leads in both. Then, when they stormed back from an 0-3 series deficit to force Game 7, they produced one of their worst performances of the season. Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle on the first play of the game, and with Malcolm Brogdon hobbled with an arm injury and Robert Williams reportedly throwing up during the game, it was too much to overcome. Losing the first two at home gave them no margin for error.

“I feel like for whatever reason we always felt coming back here, it was kind of our safe haven, that we were going to be fine,” Horford said. “I’m not going to say that that’s … but I definitely think that for whatever reason we just kind of let loose a little bit at times here at home, just thinking that we’ll be fine and we’ll kind of find our way.

“That’s something that we’ll have to look at and make sure that we shift that mindset of protecting home, kind of being more aggressive, being more … because on the road I feel like there’s that edge that we have. We have to be consistent in that. That’s something that we have to be better at.”

The Celtics’ home woes spoke to a season-long pattern in which they inexplicably let go of the rope, and consistently dropped games they should have won.

Fresh off their loss in the NBA Finals, the Celtics were motivated and fueled by that experience, at least to start the season. They erupted to a 21-5 start and were head and shoulders above the NBA as the clear-cut championship favorites, but maybe they had a false sense of security from that.

As defending Eastern Conference champions, they knew they were always going to get opponents’ best shots, but they failed to stay consistent, especially on the defensive end. They would look invincible on some nights, then lose focus and intensity and look like a completely different team the next. They couldn’t regularly give a full 48-minute effort. They lacked the attention required to win a championship.

“We addressed a lot of those things and right now I don’t have the answer for you,” Horford said. “We addressed a lot of them, especially after the Philly series and even the Atlanta series. We were like, ‘Hey, we have to be better, we have to do these things.’ And it’s something that continues to happen. It’s a pattern that happens with us. We’re going to have to do some soul searching there because some things have to change in that regard. We had a great opportunity, and we failed. That definitely has something to do with it.”

Moments after the Celtics’ sudden season-ending loss in Game 7 on Monday night, the biggest question of this summer was raised. About Brown’s future with the Celtics. About what he’s looking for. About his expectations for how extension talks will play out.

This summer, the Celtics can offer Brown a supermax extension worth $295 million that would keep him in Boston long-term. Brown, who had just come off the floor after one of the most disappointing performances of his career, shrugged off the first question about his future.

“I expected to win today and move on,” Brown said. “That’s what my focus was on and that’s what my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. It’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

When the topic was raised again minutes later, Brown struggled to come up with an answer when asked about his mindset entering potential extension talks and his expectations.

“Say that again?” Brown said, buying himself more time to process an answer.

When it was asked again, Brown took 25 seconds to formulate something.

“You asked my thought process?” Brown asked in the middle of that.

“I don’t even really know how to answer that question right now, to be honest,” Brown said. “My thought process is take it one day at a time, focus on getting better. Focus on what the future holds and see where we are from there. I guess I don’t know really know how to answer that.”

Some time after July 1, when the Celtics can officially offer Brown the supermax, an answer will come. It’s undoubtedly the biggest question facing this franchise as they turn the page from a failed season and figure out how to build a championship team moving forward around Jayson Tatum and Brown.

Brown had a career season in 2022-23, posting a career-high 26.6 points per game as he was named an All-NBA second team selection for the first time. But he crumbled with a forgettable performance in the East finals. He averaged just 19 points over the seven games and punctuated the series with a disastrous performance in Game 7 as he scored just 19 points and committed a career-high eight turnovers after Tatum sprained his left ankle to send the C’s packing for the summer.

“Just a terrible game,” Brown said. “When my team needed me most, like J.T. hurt his ankle, first play of the game, and you could see it like swelling up on him. He couldn’t move out there. It was tough for him. My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short, I failed. It’s tough. I give credit to Miami, but just a terrible job.”

There are important considerations president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and the Celtics will make while assessing their future with Tatum and Brown, who are still entering their primes at age 25 and 26, respectively, and have proven capable of leading the C’s to the NBA Finals.

Both Celtics stars are eligible to be offered the supermax extension, with Brown qualified to receive one first this summer and then Tatum next summer. Tatum is eligible to receive a five-year, $318 million extension next summer and will almost certainly get it as the face of the Celtics franchise.

If the C’s decide to offer Brown the supermax, then, they would be committing $613 million to their two stars, who would take up a significant portion of the salary cap in that scenario. That becomes more difficult with the introduction of a new collective bargaining agreement that contains challenges for teams spending into the luxury tax and will limit the Celtics’ flexibility to build a championship roster around Tatum and Brown.

The Celtics offering Brown a supermax deal ultimately feels likely unless they suddenly feel like a massive change is necessary and shake up a core that’s on the brink of a championship but hasn’t yet climbed over the hump. There aren’t easy alternatives to make.

Ultimately, it may come down to Brown. As Monday suggested, he’s unsure what his future holds and his desire to make a long-term commitment to stay in Boston is a valid question. But no player has ever rejected a supermax extension.

Those questions will loom over the Celtics for at least the next month. Tatum, for one, made clear his hope for the Celtics and Brown to come to a long-term agreement this summer.

“It’s extremely important,” Tatum said. “He’s one of the best players in this league. He plays both ends of the ball and still is relatively young. And he’s accomplished a lot so far in his career. So, I think it’s extremely important.”

The C’s were two wins away from a championship under Udoka behind the strength of their defense, but they came up short because they didn’t have enough offense. With Mazzulla in charge, the style shifted to an offensive-first approach.

Ultimately, the Celtics fell short of expectations because of that lost defensive identity. It’s what dug them in an 0-3 series deficit to the Heat that was too much to overcome even after they rediscovered their defense to reel off three consecutive wins and force an unthinkable Game 7.

“It was the issue,” Malcolm Brogdon said of their lost defensive identity. “I think this was a team in the last year that prided themselves on defense. I think defense was our calling card. This year offense was our calling card. I don’t think you win championships with a…better offense than you have a defense.”

Mazzulla’s offense was unstoppable to start the season as the unit performed at historic levels in October and November. The coach prioritized spacing and shooting 3-pointers, and it worked at the beginning. But when it reverted back to the mean, when nights came that their 3-point shots weren’t falling, the C’s couldn’t rely on anything else to win games.

Including the playoffs, the Celtics had a 52-9 record when they shot 35 percent or better from 3-point range this season. When they shot below that mark, they were 16-25.

Asked if his team was too reliant on 3-point shooting, Mazzulla was defiant.

“No,” the coach said, flatly.

But on poor shooting nights, the Celtics’ defense often wasn’t there like it was a year ago. Robert Williams’ absence for the first 29 games of the season loomed large, and while the Celtics still had a top-five defense in the regular season, it was ultimately too inconsistent.

Their 3-point shooting doomed them in the most important games of the season. The Celtics shot 20 percent from deep – their worst mark of the season – in Game 6 against the Heat and barely survived thanks to Derrick White’s miraculous buzzer-beating tip-in. They followed that up with a 21.4 percent effort – their second-worst mark of the year – in Game 7 as they missed their first 12 attempts from three, and it haunted them. It put too much pressure on their defense as they dug a hole they couldn’t climb out of to end their season.

“Defensively, I thought we had the versatility, I thought we have the talent defensively,” Brogdon said. “But on any given night we would let go of the rope and have a lot of breakdowns on that end.”

Now, as they head to the offseason full of questions, how they fix those inconsistencies and flaws will be among the biggest.

“That’s definitely a Joe question,” Brogdon said. “But for us I think we can be better. I think we can – I think defensively is where the difference is for us more than anything, whether or not you make shots.

“(Game 7) was a game, whether or not we made shots, if we got stops, we could stay in that game. That’s not a team that’s going to score 120 points. It’s not a team that’s going to get out in transition and beat you that way. They’re going to slow the game down and play in the half court. So, if we can get stops, that’s a game we can stay in, even if we’re not making shots. But the fact of the matter is we didn’t get stops. That ultimately was the death of us.”

Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle on the first play of Game 7, and he was a shell of himself in Monday’s season-ending loss. Malcolm Brogdon suffered a forearm injury in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and was ultimately a non-factor because of it. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Robert Williams also wasn’t 100 percent.

The Celtics center played just 14 minutes in Game 7. Why? According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Williams had a stomach bug that he played through.

“Robert Williams was throwing up during the game,” Charania said, via Stadium. “He only played 14 minutes last night. He was coming in and coming out of the game. When he came out, he would be throwing up. He was dealing with a stomach virus, stomach bug that he played through it. He was sick yesterday, he was sick going into today.”

In the end, the Celts were a team that was far too reliant on the three-point shot to be championship caliber. They got away with a clang-fest (7-for-35 in threes) in their dramatic Game 6 win in Miami that was pulled out of the fire by a great Derrick White moment. But that’s all it was – a moment that just staved off elimination in Game 6 by a Miami Heat team that few people gave a chance against the more talented Celtics.

In Monday’s massacre, however, the Celts got what they usually deserve when they shoot badly from three-point land. On the strength of 9-for-42 shooting on threes, the Celts fell to the Heat with a whimper, losing 103-84 in the mother of all buzzkills. The final score was charitable.

Asked if his team relied too much on the three, coach Joe Mazzulla remained defiant to the end.

“No,” said the coach flatly.

There might be a few folks who’d debate the coach on that point this morning.

In an attempt to make history in Game 7 at the Garden, the Celtics’ implosion would have made the Roy siblings proud. All 150 teams that had gone down 0-3 in a best-of-seven series in NBA history had failed to come back and win the series. Now you can make it 151, thanks to a no-show night of shooting by the Celts that produced an end to their season, coming up short once again for their quest for Banner 18.

This time, the Celtics could not blame the Garden fans or the atmosphere. At 8:01 p.m., a half hour before tip-off, the crowd started its first, boisterous “Let’s-Go-Celtics” chant. The hype video that spliced the Red Sox’ 2004 comeback against the New York Yankees with the Celts’ big moments in this series got the crowd even more revved up. Kevin Millar did his thing on the Jumbotron. The fans were ready to blow the roof off the Garden.

None of it mattered.

Jayson Tatum hurt his ankle on the first possession of the game (“I was just a shell of myself after that,” said Tatum) and with one of the top-10 NBA players hampered, the Celts’ other top-10 player was awful. Jaylen Brown, who famously challenged the fans in the last series against Philadelphia, committed eight turnovers in an absolutely brutal performance. He was 1-for-9 from behind the stripe and, at the start of the fourth quarter, he had more turnovers than the entire Heat team.

Brown at least owned up to the magnitude of the fur-ball he coughed up.

“Just a terrible game when my team needed me most,” said Brown, who scored a team-high 19 points but was minus-17. “My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short. I failed.”

Give full marks to Jimmy Butler (28 points), Caleb Martin (26 points) and the Heat. It was a daunting atmosphere in which to spit out what would have been a bitter pill to swallow. They stared it all down with some legendary gumption. The Heat did not just win Game 7 on the parquet, they took three out of the four games on Causeway Street, just as their South Florida ice brethren the Panthers did to the Bruins earlier this spring.

But given all that, the Heat were there for the taking. They opened the game not much better than their generous hosts. They started out shooting 2-for-11 from the floor. But Miami snapped out of it. The Celtics never did.

“I thought we were tight. I thought we played tight,” said Malcolm Brogdon, who tried and failed to play through a damaged tendon in his forearm. “We played that way at both ends of the ball. I thought Miami played the opposite. I thought they played loose. I thought they executed on the defensive end and offensively I thought they were poised. They weren’t rushed, they weren’t nervous. And I thought Jimmy did what he was supposed to do.”

No one on the Celtics did, however. They chunked it in the first half, and they never recovered. They missed their first 11 trey attempts and were 4-from-21 behind the stripe. When they were clanging it from downtown, they giving the Heat the ball. They committed seven first-half turnovers, three by Brown.

Meanwhile, Tatum (14 points) was making as little impact as possible for a superstar in this league. On the game’s first possession, he was slow to get up after rolling his left ankle after being fouled by Gabe Vincent. Tatum, who kept the Celts’ season alive with 51 points in their Game 7 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, had just seven points in the first half and missed his only three attempt.

The Celtics failed to gain any momentum coming out of the half and it was a fait accompli midway through the third quarter.

Now they’re left again to figure out what this team is missing. It is clear that something is.

The Celtics weren’t celebrating Saturday night in Miami. Jaylen Brown said that win meant nothing if they laid an egg Monday night on their home floor.

Then, that’s exactly what happened.

One of the rowdiest home crowds in TD Garden history came to anticipate the possibility of witnessing history, hoping to see the Celtics become the first NBA team to overcome an 0-3 series deficit and advance to the NBA Finals.

Instead, they were history. Instead, boos followed these Celtics into a long, agonizing summer after a painful 103-84 loss to the Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, one of the most disappointing defeats in Boston sports history.

“We failed. I failed,” Brown said. “We let the whole city down.”

They learned there’s a reason why no team has ever done the impossible. These Celtics came this far just to come this far.

The first three games of this series exposed the Celtics’ greatest weaknesses. They lived and died too much by 3-pointers, crumbling with a 9-for-42 effort. Their defense was too inconsistent. There were too many turnovers. Too many lapses. They covered them up with resilient, incredible performances in Games 4-6. But Game 7 exposed them for who they really were.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t get our results,” Al Horford said. “We failed. We failed. Because we wanted to win a championship. That was our goal. But despite that I’m very proud of that group because there was never any excuse.”

Monday night didn’t start well, and the Celtics never recovered. Jayson Tatum hurt his ankle on the first play of the game, and never looked the same. The C’s missed their first 12 3-point attempts of the night. The Celtics trailed by 17 in the second quarter. They continued to be torched by Caleb Martin, who had 26 points and will haunt the Celtics in their nightmares throughout this summer. Brown kept committing bad turnovers, and finished with eight of them.

Tatum injured his ankle on the first play of the game, when he was fouled taking a shot but landed awkwardly, badly rolling his left ankle. He stayed in the game, but was clearly in pain. He continued to play through it, but was very limited, noticeably limping and hobbling throughout the night.

Tatum scored one point in the first quarter. He finished with 14. In one of the biggest games of his life, when the Celtics needed him at his best, Tatum couldn’t give them much.

“It was just frustrating that I was kind of like a shell of myself,” Tatum said. “It was tough to move. Just frustrating. Especially it happening on the first play.”

With their superstar hurt, the C’s needed their other star to step up. But Brown wasn’t at his best. Tatum’s injury seemed to create a domino effect, as the offense got stagnant. They scored just 15 points in the first quarter and the offense put them in a deep hole. It put too much pressure on their defense, which couldn’t stop Martin, Jimmy Butler or several other Heat players from answering whenever the Celtics had a rare moment of life.

Brown finished with just 19 points on 23 shots. He made as many field goals (8) as he had turnovers. The Celtics, as great as they looked in the previous three games, fell back to earth in crushing fashion. The Heat sensed vulnerability and pounced, and never let up as they celebrated a trip to the NBA Finals.

“Just a terrible game,” Brown said. “When my team needed me most, like J.T. hurt his ankle, first play of the game, and you could see it like swelling up on him. He couldn’t move out there. It was tough for him. My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short, I failed. It’s tough. I give credit to Miami, but just a terrible job.”

The Heat stayed in control all night despite the Celtics’ best effort in the third quarter fueled by Derrick White.

Just like he did with a big Game 5 performance, and then again with his winning tip-in in Game 6, White did his best to save the Celtics’ season.

The Celtics trailed by 16 early in third after their horrific first half but White didn’t let them go away quietly. With Tatum hobbled, they needed White. He delivered just like the other games. He scored eight consecutive points – two free throws, a 3-pointer and then a three-point play – to cut their deficit to eight as the C’s regained life.

The Heat responded, rebuilding their lead to 13 with a 3-pointer from Max Strus midway through the third. But then the Celtics picked up their defensive intensity. They proceeded to hold the visitors scoreless for nearly four minutes, but they could never get over the hump. They couldn’t get the deficit closer than seven after White made one of two free throws, or when Grant Williams made a 3-pointer.

Martin kept on answering. Inside the final minute of the third, he made two tough jumpers to keep the Celtics behind by 10.

It unraveled for the Celtics to start the fourth. Martin drilled another 3-pointer, then Brown committed his sixth and seventh turnovers that led to back-to-back buckets for Butler. The Celtics were hopeless again with the deficit back to 17. There was not another comeback to be made. They couldn’t finish the ultimate comeback.

Boos rained down on the Celtics, and deflated fans headed to the exits after a massive letdown.

Despite falling short of expectations, the Celtics left the Garden proud of the season they put together. They faced great adversity in September, with the sudden dismissal of coach Ime Udoka just days before training camp. They pushed through the emotional toll that took as they rallied behind first-year coach Joe Mazzulla, who took his lumps as a rookie.

After coming two wins short of a championship last season, the Celtics used that as fuel as they overcame difficult circumstances. They remained a championship favorite because of their talent. There were obvious flaws, but their resilience was their greatest strength and pushed them to the brink of another NBA Finals appearance.

“When we were down 3-0, the thing was how do we want to be defined?” Mazzulla said. “I thought they showed a lot of character by even getting to this point.”

But it only took them so far. Ultimately, they couldn’t overcome their glaring weaknesses and imperfections. They couldn’t complete their so-called unfinished business. And now, a long summer of questions and waiting for the next opportunity awaits.

“You take it on the chin,” Brown said. “You learn from it. As hard as this one is right now to swallow, you get better. It’s a tough one. Tough one. Tough one for me. Tough one for our team. Tough one for our organization. Extremely bad timing.

“You just, you learn. That’s a part of the journey. This is not the end. We got a lot better to get, a lot of better basketball to play and you just got to look at it like that. But tough night.”

Brogdon confirmed after the Celtics’ season-ending Game 7 loss to the Heat that he was dealing with a partial tear of a tendon in his right forearm. The Sixth Man of the Year’s performance declined because of it as his terrific season ended in disappointing fashion.

Brogdon, who missed Game 6 because of the injury, scored just two points combined over the final four games he played, and just eight minutes in the finale, as the discomfort he experienced put a toll on him.

“Unfortunately, you use it a lot to shoot,” Brogdon said. “So, when I’m shooting, I’m having a lot of pain.”

Brogdon said surgery is something he will consider this summer as he recovers from the injury.

Brogdon was having one of the healthiest seasons of his career, but the injury bug caught him at the worst time. He wasn’t the only one, as Jayson Tatum suffered a sprained ankle on the first play of Game 7 and was hobbled for the rest of the night. Robert Williams seemed to be dealing with something as he made a trip to the locker room and played just 14 minutes. Derrick White also suffered a knee injury late in the loss.

It all amounted to a completely deflating end to a promising season. Brogdon, who wanted to be traded to the Celtics last summer for this kind of opportunity, was obviously disappointed.

“I came here to win a championship, to help this team as much as I could,” Brogdon said. “I thought we had a great season. After the season we had, it’s definitely crushing. For me personally, I did feel, I do feel great, my body feels great. I just have this tear in my arm which is unfortunate but it’s part of the game. I tried to battle through it, JT tried to battle through a sprained ankle literally on the first play of the game, so and there are guys on the Heat that are battling through stuff. …

“So, this is how the game is. Sometimes the ball doesn’t roll your way. But we’ll regroup and we’ll be back next year.”

C’s can’t stop Martin

Caleb Martin will be haunting the Celtics in their nightmares this summer. The Heat role player, who was undrafted in 2019, looked like an All-Star in the Eastern Conference Finals as he averaged 19.3 points per game and shot 48.9 percent from 3-point range. He saved his best performance for Game 7, scoring 26 points and hitting four 3-pointers as he seemed to answer every Celtics run with a big shot.

Martin came one vote short of winning Eastern Conference Finals MVP, which went to Jimmy Butler. But exactly one year after he didn’t play a single minute in Game 7 against the Celtics, Martin earned respect that he felt like he didn’t have last year.

“I felt kind of disrespected just off how I got guarded last year. I definitely just wanted to take a — I guess it was like a sense of pride and just I think a sense of just understanding how they were going to guard me. They were going to make me have to earn their respect, which I totally understand.

“I just kind of wanted to make my – come in, knowing I had to leave my mark on this series and understand I was going to be the guy that had to prove himself in order to contribute and change their schemes or whatever it is.

“I just wanted to make sure I came in to contribute any way I could to make sure that I was being able to move the needle to get to the Finals.”

Popular guests

Paul Pierce was among a handful of special guests in the building for Game 7. The Celtics legend, who was also in attendance for Game 5, made an appearance courtside more than 30 minutes before tip and walked out to mid-court to hype up the crowd. Former Celtics players Isaiah Thomas and Rajon Rondo were also at the Garden.

There weren’t any members of the 2004 Red Sox in attendance, but Kevin Millar contributed a video message trying to hype up the crowd during the first half. The Celtics also played a hype video before the game that included clips of the 2004 Red Sox’ ALCS comeback sliced with clips of their own comeback that forced a Game 7.

They turned to the Red Sox.

The C’s looked hopeless. They were in a spot no team in NBA history had overcome in 150 tries. It was the same position the Red Sox found themselves in 2004, when they roared back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the rival Yankees in the ALCS, the first time it had been done in baseball history.

So, after their Game 3 loss in Miami, and sometime before Game 4, the Celtics got together and watched ESPN’s “Four Days in October” documentary, which chronicled the Red Sox’ historic comeback.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said the idea to watch the documentary came from the assistant coaching staff.

“I thought it gave perspective,” Mazzulla said. “I thought it gave a sense of inspiration and hope and gave us an opportunity to fight to be in the position we’re in today.”

It resonated with the players, most of whom weren’t old enough to remember the Red Sox’ comeback.

“It was beautiful,” Marcus Smart said Monday morning. “It was definitely special to watch, special to witness and to be able to have an opportunity to go out there and have our own 2004 ride.”

The Celtics, of course, reeled off three consecutive victories to give themselves a chance at the same history on Monday night at TD Garden. There were plenty of reasons for the shocking turnaround. They got back to their defensive identity. They started making 3-pointers. A team gathering, reportedly at Top Golf in Miami, got them refocused.

Watching the Red Sox documentary certainly energized them, too.

“It’s honestly something that I wasn’t in tune with,” said Grant Williams, who was 5 years old when the Red Sox made their comeback in 2004. “I didn’t know about it prior to watching it and next thing you know, it just puts a certain level of fire into your heart. It’s possible. It’s not only something that’s possible, but it’s something that we know that we can accomplish as a group.

“We know that we’re going to not only compete with one another, but we’re also going to push one another to our goal and our success. It definitely left a lasting impact on me not just for this series but throughout the rest of my career.”

Damon, of course, was the center fielder for those ‘04 Sox, who became the first team in MLB history to overcome an 0-3 playoff series deficit as they won four consecutive games over the rival Yankees and then went on to win the World Series. Naturally, Damon has been wrapped up watching the Celtics, who are on the cusp of becoming the first team in NBA history to achieve the same feat against the Heat. So much so, he had to see it for himself.

When an opportunity came up to go to Game 6 on Saturday night in Miami, Damon – who lives in his hometown of Orlando – couldn’t pass it up.

“A buddy of mine is a huge Celtics fan, and he’s like, ‘Oh, we gotta go down. You have to bring your (World Series) ring,’” Damon said on Sunday. “I was like, ‘Uh, OK.’ So he had a Citation 10 (jet) ready to rock and roll and we went down. …

“We had a great night.”

Sure enough, there Damon was on Saturday, courtside at the Kaseya Center and flashing his World Series ring as he witnessed the Celtics win on Derrick White’s miraculous buzzer-beater to force Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday night in Boston. Damon, who’s a fan of the Orlando Magic, said the game also gave him an opportunity to catch up with Charles Barkley, who he plays golf with occasionally, and his former neighbor Shaquille O’Neal, who are both part of TNT’s coverage.

Johnny Damon showing off the #RedSox #BleedGreen #DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/swjFQ2C7Um

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 28, 2023

On Sunday, Damon was still in disbelief of what he saw.

“What a great finish,” Damon said. “I mean, nobody knew who the (expletive) won the game last night. And it was like, ‘Uh, did that just happen?’ …

“When Jimmy Butler hit those three free throws, it was like, game’s over. All they had to do was play 2.6 or 2.8 seconds left to finish the game, and the Heat couldn’t do it. Wow.”

The comparisons between the 2004 Red Sox and 2023 Celtics were easy to make after the C’s went down in a 0-3 series hole. Like the Red Sox, who lost 19-8 in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, the Celtics suffered a humiliating Game 3 defeat that put them in their seemingly impossible situation. The C’s seemed to welcome the comparisons, even if it seemed a little forced initially.

“Don’t let us get one,” Marcus Smart said before Game 4, repeating a famous line made by the Red Sox’ Kevin Millar before Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS when he said, “Don’t let us win tonight.”

Three consecutive wins later, and history is at the Celtics’ doorstep just like the Red Sox in 2004. Damon is embracing it.

“We have a chance to have another team in the conversation with our 2004 Red Sox,” Damon said. “This Celtics team, they were down and out after Game 3, kind of like we were back in 2004, 19 years ago. They figured it out. People were calling them all kinds of names like, ‘Oh, they didn’t fight, they didn’t do this, they didn’t do that,’ but here they are. Game 7.”

Monday night promises to be a wild night at TD Garden, where it’s certainly possible that several members of the 2004 Red Sox will be in attendance to see the Celtics attempt to make history. Damon, though he teased on Twitter that he wanted to make the trip to Boston, said he’ll be unable to go. It seems likely that David Ortiz, who’s been in attendance for several Celtics playoff games in recent years, will be there.

“That’d be great,” said Al Horford, who’s a close friend of Ortiz. “You know, at this point, this is special for Boston and Boston sports.”

The Celtics are expecting an incredible atmosphere on Monday night. Jayson Tatum said after Game 6 that he had never been more excited to get back to Boston in his life as the Celtics try to become the first of 151 teams in NBA history to overcome an 0-3 hole while simultaneously advancing to their second consecutive NBA Finals.

As epic and exhilarating as Game 6 was, the Celtics know they haven’t accomplished anything yet.

“We all talked about it,” Tatum said. “We’re all aware it’s not time to celebrate. We didn’t accomplish anything. We won a big game that we had to win in incredible fashion. We’re proud of the way we played, proud of the way we figured it out.

“But the job is far from finished.”

Damon has been there. His Red Sox finished the job in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. Damon hit two home runs, including a grand slam, as the Sox rolled to a 10-3 victory over the Yankees, then to a sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series and into Boston sports lore. The Celtics are hoping to be remembered in the same way.

“It’s a very cool scenario,” Damon said. “You know what, hopefully they can get the job done so there’s another team in the conversation. But if they don’t, they’re going to have to keep talking about our team and how great we were and how much we had to overcome and how much we had to fight, and how much we had to do our shots of Jack Daniels and all that good stuff.

“So, for the Boston fans, they’ve been great to me for a long time and I got nothing against the Heat, but may the best team win (on Monday).”

The Celtics guard was admittedly tentative when he arrived in Boston at last season’s trade deadline. He didn’t want to step on any toes. But he got over those initial jitters. He was confident and comfortable this season, and it showed in his performance as he became a full-time starter, one of the Celtics’ most important players and an All-Defensive team selection.

What better way to show that growth than on Saturday night, when his miracle tip-in at the buzzer saved the Celtics’ season in epic fashion?

“If you don’t know who D-White is, you know who he is now,” Marcus Smart said. “I mean, that dude has been phenomenal for us this whole, whole year. You know, just playing the way that we knew he could play when we picked him up.

“It’s been refreshing for us, and it’s been a joy to watch and a joy to be on the court with him.”

White’s humility has always stood out. The sixth-year guard has never been an attention-seeker. He doesn’t say much. He lets his play do the talking.

But you could tell how much this moment meant to him. When the basket was officially counted, he let out a big roar as his teammates mobbed him. He had tears in his eyes during his on-court interview with TNT. Still, he didn’t want to make it about himself. He said multiple times after that he’s just happy the Celtics won. He recognized the attention he was receiving, with his phone blowing up, but was looking forward to getting home to see his 1-year-old son Hendrix, who was born during last season’s Eastern Conference Finals.

“Get home (Sunday), play with Hendrix,” White said. “I’m sure he won’t look at me any differently, so that’ll be really cool.”

The play was impressive, but White kept a simple mindset. After inbounding the ball to Marcus Smart, White’s instincts took over as the shot went up. When it missed, he was in perfect position.

“It don’t do no good to stand in the corner there, whether he makes it or not,” White said. “So I just was crashing the glass, and it came right to me.”

And about that attention? White became the second player in league history to make a game-winning buzzer beater with his team trailing and facing elimination. The first? Michael Jordan’s “The Shot” over Craig Ehlo in 1989.

Some other takeaways and thoughts from the Celtics’ Game 6 win:

– White’s impact in this series has been felt in more ways than just his legendary buzzer-beater. His play has been instrumental in the Celtics’ comeback to force Game 7. He made six 3-pointers in Game 5. And before the winning moment in Game 6, his strong defense on Jimmy Butler put them in position. The Heat star went 0-for-6 with White as his primary defender, per ESPN tracking.

– Speaking of Butler, it was hard not to feel a little deja vu as he led the Heat to their late comeback. Last season, the Heat trailed the Celtics by double digits with less than four minutes to go in Game 7 and stormed back before Butler’s late go-ahead 3-pointer fell short. That loss has fueled this Heat team, and it looked like Butler had gotten his redemption on Saturday. He willed the Heat to another comeback after trailing by double digits late and this time put them ahead with three free throws. Then White performed his miracle.

It’s crazy how narratives can change in an instant. If Smart’s miss bounces another way, the talk would be how the Celtics blew another lead and lost the season in devastating fashion, and Butler would be looked at as a hero after overcoming a bad shooting night to lead the Heat to the Finals.

– So many plays can be easily forgotten because of the way Game 6 ended. One that shouldn’t is Al Horford’s insane block of a Bam Adebayo dunk attempt with 7:15 left in the fourth. The C’s had just retaken the lead after the Heat’s surge early in the quarter and Horford’s block ensured Boston kept some critical momentum.

– Sometimes you need to get a little bit lucky to win a close playoff game, and the Celtics dodged two bullets when Duncan Robinson – a 43.8 percent 3-point shooter in the playoffs – missed a pair of really good looks from deep late in the game. The first would have tied the game with 1:24 left. The second would have given the Heat a two-point lead with 22 seconds left.

– Joe Mazzulla has received fair criticism in the playoffs, but he should get credit for helping rally the C’s out of their 3-0 series hole and for how he navigated some situations in Game 6. He made a risky move by inserting Jaylen Brown back in the game with four fouls with 5:30 left in the third, but it paid off. Brown didn’t commit another foul and scored 13 of his 26 points after coming back in, which included some big plays.

Initially, it seemed that Mazzulla made a mistake when he challenged the foul call on Horford on the Heat’s final possession because Butler’s shot was overturned from a 2-pointer to a 3-pointer, giving him three foul shots that allowed the Heat to take the lead. But a review of the shot being a 2 or 3 would have been made regardless if Mazzulla challenged the play.

The challenge actually benefited the Celtics because the time remaining was changed from 2.1 to 3.0 seconds, which was ultimately critical because it gave the C’s enough time for White’s putback. According to the league, the clock would not have been reviewed unless the play was triggered by a challenge.

Somehow, some way, after Derrick White’s buzzer-beating tip-in won an epic Game 6, the Celtics have responded to a 3-0 series deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals to force a Game 7 on Monday night at TD Garden, where history can be made.

No NBA team has won a best-of-seven series from a 3-0 hole. One-hundred fifty teams have failed. The Celtics are only the fourth to force a Game 7. Not only can they become the first, they would advance to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season in doing so.

Monday night – on Memorial Day, no less – at the Garden promises to be one of the craziest home environments the Celtics have experienced in recent memory.

“I’ve never been so excited to go back to Boston in my life, and I cannot wait to see all the fans on Monday because it’s going to be fun,” Jayson Tatum said.

The Celtics have been unable to avoid the comparisons to the 2004 Red Sox, who became the first team in baseball history to overcome the same deficit in the ALCS against the Yankees. It started before they even won a game in this series. But the comparisons, as forced as they seemed, are real now.

Could there be a 2004 reunion at the Garden on Monday? Johnny Damon, a member of the 2004 Red Sox team, was at Game 6 in Miami and tweeted after the Celtics’ win, “Might need to fly up to Boston.” David Ortiz has been a staple at Celtics’ playoff games, and Al Horford – a friend of Ortiz’s – was asked if he’s give him a call to be there on Monday.

“That’d be great,” Horford said. “You know at this point, this is special for Boston and Boston sports. …

“I can’t wait. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be electric from before, throughout, after. So I’m just really excited to have that opportunity.”

The Celtics fan base was well-represented in Miami. There were noticeably more C’s fans in the building for Game 6 than Games 3 and 4, and they made their presence known throughout the night. There were several loud “Let’s go Celtics!” chants during the fourth quarter. After the win, a large crowd of Celtics fans made their way to TNT’s “Inside the NBA” set at the Kaseya Center for the show.

During Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s press conference, C’s fans were still loud as they exited the arena.

Now imagine what Monday will be like?

Jaylen Brown famously called out the fans before Game 7 against the 76ers, and they responded. The Celtics star can’t wait for what’s in store on Monday.

“Man, I can only imagine,” Brown said. “I know these fans, you can hear them here in Miami, so I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like for Game 7. It’s going to be huge. The best two words in sports is ‘Game 7’ and our home crowd, I know they’re going to bring the energy, so I’m excited.”

Still, the Celtics aren’t taking anything for granted.

They know they got away with one on Saturday night. They produced their worst 3-point performance of the season. Their defense stepped up again, but they blew another double-digit fourth quarter lead to Jimmy Butler and the Heat. If Marcus Smart’s missed shot bounced the other way and White wasn’t there for the tip-in, their season would be over right now.

The Celtics certainly celebrated the win, one of the most legendary endings in franchise history. But they know they haven’t won anything yet. They know Saturday doesn’t matter if they don’t complete the job and win Game 7.

“We all talked about it,” Tatum said. “We’re all aware it’s not time to celebrate. We didn’t accomplish anything. We won a big game that we had to win in incredible fashion. We’re proud of the way we played, proud of the way we figured it out.

“But the job is far from finished. (The Heat) is a great team, really well-coached team, and we’ve got to be ready on Monday. It’s not over. Both teams want this extremely — like to the highest degree. They want it. We want it. The guys are competing on both ends, giving everything they have.”

Brown echoed that sentiment, but noted the momentum that Game 6 can give them for Monday.

“It means nothing if we come and lay an egg on our home floor,” Brown said. “Still focused, but excited that we came here and did what we said we was going to do. …

“It gives you a supreme boost in confidence, man,” he said of the Game 6 win. “It doesn’t get too much worse than being down 0-3. We feel like we’ve been to hell and back. We feel like we can face any adversity that gets thrown at us in the duration of the game or the duration of the season or in the postseason. It all means nothing if we don’t come out and give our best effort on our home floor on Monday night.”

He still couldn’t believe what had just happened, what he had just witnessed.

“Ooh-whee. Oh, my God,” he said. “That was incredible. …

“I’m still like in disbelief. That s— was crazy.”

The Celtics’ season looked suddenly lost in the final seconds of Game 6 on Saturday night in Miami. They needed a miracle after they had just blown yet another double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, after Jimmy Butler rose from the dead to put his Heat in front and on the cusp of the NBA Finals, after a wild sequence.

But these Celtics thrive when they’re counted out.

With three seconds on the clock, the Celtics trailing by one, Derrick White inbounded the ball to Marcus Smart, who heaved a last-second 3-pointer. It rattled in and out. But White didn’t give up on the play, he didn’t quit on the season. No one on the Heat put a body on him. He crashed the glass. The ball fell right to him. He tipped the ball in, barely beating the horn. He sent the Celtics to an unbelievable, epic 104-103 victory, in one of the most incredible endings in this storied team’s history.

“I’ve never been a part of a game like this,” Al Horford said.

“To be that poised and finish like that,” Horford said, “that’s legendary.”

The Celtics are still alive after a miracle in Miami.

“It all happened so fast,” Jaylen Brown said. “I know Smart shot it, and I thought it was good. Then Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man. It was just an incredible play.”

The play was even more legendary given the circumstances, given the history at stake. The Celtics were left for dead, looking hopeless as they walked off this court less than a week ago, humiliated after a Game 3 loss put them in an 0-3 series hole in these Eastern Conference Finals, a deficit that has never been overcome. But they’ve reeled off three consecutive wins. They became the fourth team to ever force a Game 7 under those circumstances.

Game 7 – an unthinkable possibility last weekend – is Monday night in Boston, and if the Celtics can finish this comeback and then go on to win a championship, White’s season-saving play will be remembered in franchise lore.

“I was just happy,” said a humble White, who was emotional in the moments after the play. “Season was on the line. We don’t want to go home, and so I was just happy we got the win.”

The Celtics were in control, in the lead for most of Saturday night despite their worst 3-point shooting performance of the season. They made just seven of 35 attempts from deep, but because of their rediscovered defensive identity over these last three games, they stayed in front.

But they know the Heat are difficult to close out. They learned that the hard way in Games 1 and 2. Then again in Game 6. The Celtics led by nine with 3:04 to play before Butler came alive. The Heat star shrugged off a woeful 2-for-17 start from the field and willed Miami back.

Butler made a 3-pointer with 2:04 left. Four-point game.

Butler was fouled with 1:31 remaining. He made the first. Three-point game. Then he missed the second. Caleb Martin corralled the rebound and found Duncan Robinson wide open for three. But it somehow missed. The Heat weren’t done though.

Butler converted a three-point play with 53 seconds to go. One-point game.

The C’s were teetering at the worst possible moment. Tatum, who was brilliant in the first half, struggled to find a shot in the second half and was blocked twice on one play. Bam Adebayo got the ball, He found Robinson in transition, and he took an early wide open triple. But he missed again.

The Celtics weren’t quite out of the woods. After all the madness, they led by two in the final seconds before they experienced a disastrous sequence. Butler was fouled by Horford on what, at first glance, looked like a two-pointer. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla challenged the call, hoping to overturn the foul. But the call was upheld, and after the review, Butler’s shot attempt was ruled to be a 3-pointer.

The play would have been reviewed on whether it was a 2 or 3 regardless if Mazzulla had challenged. It gave Butler three shots to take the lead, and he calmly sank all of them.

The C’s were suddenly on the verge of devastating elimination.

“In all honesty, at that point, I’m in full prayer mode,” Brown said. “Whatever prayer I got, whatever dua I got, reciting it over and over in my head.”

Mazzulla called a timeout to draw up a play. It would have been natural for the Celtics to be deflated after that sequence. But in the huddle, they weren’t panicked. They were locked in on an opportunity to win.

“I didn’t have time to think like oh, s— the season might be over,” Tatum said. “It was like no, we’ve got three seconds left, we try and make a play. Whatever happened just happened. Nobody was sitting there pouting like oh, we blew it. No, we’ve got three seconds left. Joe drew up a play. We tried to execute it to the best of our ability and try to make something happen. “That never crossed my mind while I was sitting there. I was just trying to see what we were running.”

Almost ironically, Mazzulla’s failed challenge actually aided the final play. When Butler was fouled by Horford, there were 2.1 seconds left on the clock. But after the review, it was changed to 3.0 seconds. The clock was only reviewed because Mazzulla challenged the play.

That extra time was ultimately crucial for the Celtics, giving White the time he needed to sneak to the basket for the game-winning tip-in.

For a few moments, there was uncertainty if the basket counted. But after the play was shown on the video board at the arena, it was clear White released the ball with one-tenth of a second on the clock. The Celtics erupted in celebration on the court. Robert Williams grabbed White, then the rest of his teammates followed to mob their hero.

The Celtics were still, unbelievably, alive.

“Being down three games, nobody has ever been able to come back from that as of yet, but it’s only, what, four or five teams that’s even been able to force a Game 7,” Brown said. “That just tells you that the group that we have is unique. The group that we have is special.

“Sometimes you need a little bit of luck to bring it home.”

It was the stuff of legends.

“This is how special teams, championship teams … throughout runs, you’re going to go through a situation like this,” Horford said. “This was big for us.”

The Celtics’ season suddenly looked lost, taken away from them in an instant. They controlled Game 6, until they didn’t. An unfathomable sequence and three free throws from Jimmy Butler suddenly put the Heat on the cusp of the NBA Finals. The Celtics were on the brink.

Jaylen Brown was left praying, the Celtics down one with three seconds to go.

Derrick White answered it.

Marcus Smart’s shot rattled out. White, after inbounding the ball, crashed the glass. He snuck in, he tipped the rebound back in. Somehow, it came before the buzzer sounded. The Celtics had won.

When it was official, when they saw the replay on the video board confirming their epic victory, the Celtics erupted into celebration on the court at the Kaseya Center.

Celtics 104, Heat 103.

Unbelievable.

“Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man,” Brown said. “It was just an incredible play.”

After falling behind 0-3 in these Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics have stormed back. They won three consecutive games, the last one in epic fashion. There will be a Game 7 on Monday night in Boston, where the C’s will look to become the first team in NBA history to overcome an 0-3 deficit and advance to their second consecutive NBA Finals.

Unbelievable.

The Celtics needed just one stop to force a previously unthinkable Game 7.

They didn’t get it, then still did it under even more unthinkable circumstances.

The Celtics’ season suddenly looked lost, taken away from them in an instant. Leading by two in the dying seconds, they suffered from an unfathomable sequence. Al Horford fouled Butler. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla challenged the call. The foul was upheld, but Butler was given three shots, ruled behind the 3-point line. He sunk all three shots to give the Heat the lead.

Then, needing a miracle, the Celtics pulled it off.

The Celtics led by double digits on two separate occasions in this game, including by 13 with 3:27 to go in the third quarter. Despite their poor outside shooting, and Tatum going absent for stretches, the C’s looked like they would pull away.

But turnovers mounted for the C’s in addition to missed shots, and the Heat mounted a comeback. Miami went on an 18-4 surge and an 11-3 run early in the fourth. The Heat pulled ahead by one on Butler’s tip layup.

But then one play changed the momentum. On the Celtics’ next possession, Brown was fouled and Bam Adebayo was whistled for goaltending the basket while hanging on the rim, which warranted a technical foul. Brown made both free throws as the C’s finished a four-point possession.

Duncan Robinson scored five consecutive points to cut Boston’s deficit to four. But then Derrick White hit a huge 3-pointer and after another stop, Marcus Smart finished an impressive three-point play as he crashed to the floor to give the Celtics a 10-point lead.

Moments later, “Let’s go Celtics!” chants filled the air inside the Kaseya Center. The Celtics sensed victory, but finishing it off was never going to be easy. Not against the Heat.

The Celtics led by nine with 3:04 to play. Butler, mired in an awful night, willed them back, scoring five consecutive points to bring them back. A year after his 3-pointer fell short in Game 7 that would have sent the Heat to the NBA Finals, it looked like he had redeemed himself. Until White had other plans.

Other takeaways:

– For most of the season, the Celtics have been a team that lives and dies by the 3-pointer. But they jumped out to a big lead in the second quarter because they were elite in the mid-range and outscoring the Heat in the paint.

The Celtics made only three 3-pointers in the first on just 15 attempts – both well below what they prefer – and didn’t have a single make from deep in the second quarter. But Jayson Tatum got hot from the mid-range and was getting whatever he wanted on drives to the basket and went to the free-throw line 11 times in the first half.

Tatum scored 25 points in the first half, including 16 in the second quarter as he took over. His lob to Robert Williams – who flushed home a one-handed alley-oop – and then layup put the C’s up 52-41 with 4:15 remaining in the first half. But the Celtics didn’t close the half well. They didn’t make any field goals over the final 3:41 of the second as the Heat put together a 12-5 run that cut Boston’s halftime lead to four.

– Brown started hot, making his first five shot attempts – including three tough mid-range jumpers – that staked the Celtics an early lead. But he didn’t quite look the same after being fouled under the basket early in the second. He favored his ailing wrist after the foul and seemed to be upset by the contact. He proceeded to make just one of two at the line before committing a pair of turnovers, and picked up his third foul on a charge with 2:43 left in the first half.

Brown may have gotten away with a fourth foul in the opening minute of the second half. The Celtics star initially scored on a three-point play even though it looked like he hooked his arm around Caleb Martin to get the bucket. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra challenged the call and it was successful, but it was deemed to be no foul at all on the play. Brown’s bucket still counted.

But about a minute later, Brown picked up his fourth anyway as the Celtics committed four fouls and went into the penalty in the first 2:48 of the third.

– The Heat only went 9-for-23 from 3-point range in Game 5, and it seemed to be a clear priority to increase those numbers in Game 6. The Celtics consistently lost shooters – including, somehow, Caleb Martin, who continued to torch them in this series – as the Heat went 9-for-15 from deep in the first half. That included three from Gabe Vincent, who returned after missing Game 5.

– The Celtics, however, did a fine job defensively on Jimmy Butler in the first half. They held the Heat star to just nine points in the first half and 2-for-17 shooting into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics guard went through pregame warmups but was ultimately ruled out about an hour before tip off of Boston’s do-or-die Game 6 against the Heat on Saturday night. Brogdon reportedly suffered the injury in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. According to The Athletic, the C’s guard had a partial tear in the tendon coming out of his right elbow and leading to his forearm.

It didn’t seem to bother Brogdon initially as he scored 19 points in 37 minutes in Game 1 but the injury apparently worsened, and so did his play. Wearing a black sleeve on his forearm, Brogdon went scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting in 18 minutes in Game 3, then scored just two points in Game 4. Brogdon played eight minutes in the first half of Game 5 but left the game in the second half and did not return.

“He gave us the best he could, and we kind of went from there,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said after Game 5.

There seemed to be some optimism that Brogdon could suit up for Game 6 as he was listed as questionable on Friday. He was present at Saturday morning’s shootaround but didn’t seem to be doing much.

The absence of the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year was significant as the Celtics looked to force a Game 7.

Vincent returns

Heat guard Gabe Vincent was back for Game 6 after he missed Game 5 due to his left ankle sprain. He was in the starting lineup as the Heat made a lineup change, putting Caleb Martin in for Kevin Love.

Vincent crushed the Celtics through the first five games of this series, averaging 17.5 points per game on 50 percent shooting from 3-point range.

Grant stays ready

It seems crazy now that Grant Williams didn’t play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but such has been this season for the fourth-year Celtics forward. Williams began the year in the rotation as he’s been for most of his career but slowly lost his spot in the second half of the season. But he has seemed to perform well in every opportunity he’s received in the postseason and he has regained his place as a key player in this series.

In Games 2-5, Williams averaged 10.3 points in 27.8 minutes per game while shooting 53.3 percent from 3-point range. It’s a credit to him continuing to stay ready whenever his name has been called.

“Just being there for your teammates, that’s the No. 1 thing, whether it’s on the floor or off,” Williams said. “For me, it’s just trying to stay mentally disciplined in my regimen, making sure I’m prepared both on and off the court, both diet and also with the actual workouts and stuff that I’m doing to stay consistent. And I think that I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of great teammates throughout this year, and they’ve had my back throughout anything that’s happened. It’s my job to do the same for them.”

Williams got some heat in Game 2 after he butted heads with Jimmy Butler, which helped the Heat star close out the Celtics in that game. But he has mostly been a net positive in this series and his teammates and coaching staff have continued to respect his approach and impact given his difficult situation.

“I think appreciate his humility and professionalism to understand how it works and always be ready to play,” Mazzulla said. “We have each other’s back. We have a level of communication and trust with each other that we can just communicate exactly what’s going on. So from day one, he’s had a trust factor, he’s had a humility and a professionalism.”

Tatum gets the jitters

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that NBA players are human. Before Saturday’s Game 6, one of the biggest games of his career, Jayson Tatum admitted some vulnerability.

“I get nervous before every game,” Tatum said. “Not like scared but a healthy level of anxiousness. First game of the season against Philly to now, I get nerves before every game.”

And not just playoff games.

“I guess there’s more stakes,” Tatum said. “More to gain, more to lose. But I get nervous/anxious before every game”

No excuses for Brown

It has not been the healthiest season – or playoff run – for Jaylen Brown. The Celtics star suffered a facial fracture in February and was still wearing a protective mask during the postseason. He suffered a right hand laceration just before the playoffs began. And now, he’s been seen wearing an ice pack over his left wrist after shootarounds throughout the East finals.

Brown hasn’t been on any injury reports during the playoffs, and while he may be nursing some minor injuries, he’s been full go.

“At this point of the year, everybody got injuries,” Brown said in an interview with NBC Sports Boston at Saturday’s shootaround. “I got injuries, all over, compiled, but I’ll never let that be an excuse. You’ll never hear no reports about me coming out, saying anything was bothering me. You come out, you play basketball, you leave it all out there.” …

Matthew Tkachuk and some members of the Florida Panthers, who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final last week, were in attendance for Game 6. Tkachuk and Tatum went to high school together in St. Louis.

As I sat in the corner of the parquet, two cameras in my lap, cross-legged in front of the who’s who of Boston in the front rows, I had an amazing view of the Celtics do-or-die Game 5 juggernaut.

And the fans almost lifted the roof off the place.

Charlie Baker, sitting directly behind me with his wife, fist-bumped me as the three-pointers rained down. To my right was former Celtic great Paul Pierce laughing and enjoying the accolades from the fans around him as he siped a cocktail from a straw.

To my left is David Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports sitting stoically with his model-like girlfriend at his side.

I became well aware of the Heat’s confidence seeing them strut their stuff as they warmed up just before the game — but that bravado soon disintegrated.

Just before tipoff, Jimmy Buttler walked over to my corner in enemy territory to fist-bump a young woman sitting in one of the lavish floor seats. Glaring at the Celtics fans, he took to center court, grabbed the basketball from the referee, tested it by squeezing and bouncing it, then gave it back.

Then it happened. Seconds after tipoff the Celtics exploded! The passes were lightning-fast and bullseye accurate. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown were diving for balls, ignoring the probable demise of their superhuman athletic bodies.

Jason Tatum was effortlessly hitting threes and Derrick White was not missing a shot. The crowd erupted! The deafening sound coming from the Garden felt as though the building was rocking as the Celtics continued to dominate the Heat by not only their offense, but their cutthroat, do-or-die defense. Baker and his wife were on their feet along with thousands of others screaming with pure joy as the Celtics went ahead 10 points then 20.

Seeing the Heat crumble right before my eyes as the hometeam clung to life is something you witness only once or twice a season.  After the game ended Charlie Baker gave me a big double high five and said, “See you back here (on Monday)!”

The Celtics beat the Heat 110-97 and head back to Miami for Game 6.

Game 6 often lacks the pop, punch, and power of Game 7.

Game 6 is Miley Cyrus.

Game 7 is Taylor Swift.

Game 6 is Jan.

Game 7 is Marcia.

Game 6 is Twitter Spaces.

Game 7 is Instagram Live.

Game 6 wears trifocals.

Game 7 has 20/10 vision.

Game 6 has Derrick White’s hairline.

Game 7 carries the coif of Marcus Smart.

Game 6 has a Dad Bod.

Game 7 is 2018 Gronk.

Game 6 Is Narragansett.

Game 7 is Sam Adams.

Game 6 is “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Game 7 is “Star Wars.”

What can we expect tonight? Once in a great while, Game 6 leaves an undeniable impression. It
becomes the one we remember.

Let’s give it some respect.

Game 6 gave us Carlton Fisk.

Nearly 50 years later, Fisk’s foul-pole shot in the 12th inning of the penultimate game of the
1975 World Series at Fenway Park is as much a part of Red Sox lore as anything John Henry
could ever hope to manufacture. Game 7 was played later that same night. It was the greatest
anticlimax in Boston sports history. Most people know the Red Sox lost, but few remember the
details. I was there in the bleachers at age 10. The scar is sutured into my sports soul.

Game 6 gave us Bill Buckner.

Yes, we all know that Stanley blew it. And that Calvin Schiraldi pulled the original Schiraldi. But
Bill Buckner’s inability to put his glove to the ground has forever (unfairly) been bronzed as the
signature moment of the 1986 World Series. Game 7 came two nights later. Al Nipper
administered the final dose of pentobarbital.

Game 6 gave us Curt Schilling.

He took the mound in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium as Boston continued to claw back from its 3-0
deficit to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. Pitching on one leg, more or less, Schilling and the Red
Sox bled their way to 4-2 win. Game 7 was a victory lap as hell froze over in the New York
tabloids. After leaving baseball, Schilling committed treason by voting Republican. He has since
been banned in Boston by the Boston Globe’s editorial page.

Game 6 gave us 17 Seconds Of Hell

The 2013 Boston Bruins trailed Chicago 3-2 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Boston held a
2-1 lead late in the third. But Chicago’s Bryan Bickell tied it at 18:44. Dave Bolland potted the
game-winner just 17 seconds later. And the Bruins completed the greatest collapse this side of
the Berlin Wall. Thanks, Tuukka.

Game 6 gave us “Anything Is Possible!”

Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and the rest of the Celtics demolished Kobe Bryant’s
Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. That win clinched Banner 17. Sadly, it’s been
15 years since the Celtics won a championship. Even worse, they’ve only won one NBA title in
the past 36 Junes. Garnett’s primal “anything is possible” scream has become a staple on NBA
hype reels.

Of the 150 teams who lost the first three games of an NBA playoff series, the Celtics are the just
15th to reach Game 6. Only three forced a Game 7.

And, of course, none has ever completed the four-game comeback.

“1-150?”

“Why Not Us?”

Depends on which version of the Celtics opts to appear. Boston waited until the final quarter of
Game 4 to arrive in this series. Aside from Jayson Tatum’s historic play in Game 7 against the
Sixers, the Celtics have historically underperformed this postseason.

Boston should have dispatched Atlanta and Philly in no more than five games apiece. That the
Celtics never peak until their literal and metaphorical backs are against the wall is – in a word –
frustrating.

The Celtics were a substantial favorite before this series. Boston was allegedly healthy, deeper,
and more talented. Unfortunately for three-plus games, the Celtics lacked the grit and balls that drove
Garnett & Co. in 2008.

The Heat ran at room temperature in Game 5 without the injured Gabe Vincent. That Vincent
has emerged as perhaps the Heat’s Non-Jimmy Butler MVP is a tell at just how deep Miami has
dug into its roster.

The Celtics were vintage Aerosmith on Thursday night. They found their harmony and jammed
non-stop while rocking the house. “Back In The Saddle” for 48 minutes.

But you don’t get a Duck Boat parade for winning Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Or
Game 6, either.

While pieces of the calamitous narrative sown earlier this week may have tempered, the season
ranks as a “Major Fail” if the NBA Finals do not begin in Boston next Thursday night. Whether it
is viewed as an historic choke job, or just a major disappointment, won’t really matter.

Joe Mazzulla may have saved his job by not getting swept. But if Mazzulla does return, it would
only be out of convenience and deference to his alleged benefactor, Tatum.

In much the same way Bill O’Brien was brought in to reclaim the Patriots offense at the behest
of Robert Kraft, Mazzulla will have an adult presence or two in his coaching staff. Whether he
wants it or not.

The same holds with the lineup. Substantial change is inevitable even if the Celtics were to
sweep this home-and-home with Miami. Just how deep and drastic that change will be depends
much on what happens tonight – and Monday in Game 7.

If necessary.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com)

But this Celtics team is at its best when a fully confident White is playing well. He returned to the starting lineup for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals as Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla searched for answers to his stagnant offense. In Game 5, White made it clear that he’s one of the biggest keys if the Celtics will finish off a historic comeback against the Heat.

White played his all-around best game of the playoffs in the victory. He scored a team-high 24 points on 8-for-11 shooting, which included six 3-pointers. But his defense may have been even better. White was relentless on that side of the ball, making life uncomfortable for a Heat team that had been far too comfortable to start to this series, and his play was critical for a dominant Celtics defense effort in which they forced 16 turnovers.

“D-White, Second Team All Defense this year for a reason,” Jayson Tatum said. “He’s a big part of our team, our identity, things we try and do on the defensive end. He’s a very smart basketball player on both ends, and his awareness, his instincts, they showed tonight.”

And whenever the Celtics needed a big shot, White seemed to be the source. He made three triples in the first quarter that helped the C’s surge to a big lead, including two big ones in the final two minutes that killed momentum from the Heat. As the clock expired on the first quarter, White drained a fadeaway 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Boston a 15-point lead.

White made three more triples that helped the Celtics sustain a big double-digit lead, which had proven to be surmountable for the Heat in the first two games of the series. But White’s shots helped kill their hopes. More importantly, White took them all without hesitation, with full confidence. As the Celtics try to win two more games to make history, they need to continue to make outside shots. White is a big part of that.

“Big-time player, big-time shots tonight,” Jaylen Brown said. “D-White came ready to play. As soon as they gave him any space, he let it fly, and he got hot from downtown. Not just on offense but on defense. His aggressiveness is key. They try to put him into matchups at times, and his ability to be able to block shots, chase guys off shooters, guard the best player, get out in transition, that’s the greatest shot. That’s really key for our team.”

Crowd pleasers

The Celtics have not been good at home in the postseason, and they’re well aware. They were 10-11 in their previous 21 home playoff games entering Thursday, before they delivered a worthy performance for their raucous TD Garden crowd in their Game 5 win.

“I’m just glad we gave them something to cheer about today,” Tatum said. “We got the best fans in the league, and up until today, this series we haven’t gave them much to cheer for at home, so I was glad that our performance matched the energy that they were giving us, and obviously they raise our level. They’re a big part of what we do, especially at home. We feed off that a lot.”

Heat remain confident

Even though they’re in danger of suffering a historic collapse, the Heat are not remotely panicked. They know they’re still in an advantageous position, leading the series 3-2 with a chance to clinch a berth to the NBA Finals on their home floor. No situation worries this Heat team, which had to overcome adversity all season and barely made the postseason as a play-in team.

“Guys are so confident because they have been in this position all year long with guys in and out of the lineup,” Jimmy Butler said. “They are constantly working on their game. So they don’t switch up anything just because it’s Game 5 of the playoffs or Game 5 of the season. They are going to do what they are comfortable with. They are going to do whatever you ask them to do. They are going to play well. I feel like they did in the possessions and the time that they got out there.”

The Heat star all but guaranteed victory in Saturday’s Game 6 even after the Heat delivered back-to-back duds.

“The last two games are not who we are,” Butler said. “It just happened to be that way. We stopped playing defense halfway because we didn’t make shots that we want to make. But that’s easily correctable. You just have to come out and play harder from the jump. Like I always say, it’s going to be all smiles and we are going to keep it very, very, very consistent, knowing that we are going to win next game.”

Why do the Celtics only respond when they need to? Why do they thrive when their backs are against the wall?

“I wish I didn’t know the answer,” Tatum said.

Whatever it is, it’s ingrained in this Celtics team’s DNA. They seem to be obsessed with doing it the hard way, whether it was going down 3-2 to Milwaukee last postseason, then losing at home to Miami in Game 6 that forced them to win Game 7 on the road. The script repeated itself when they fell behind 3-2 to Philadelphia earlier this month.

But now the Celtics are testing it like they’re driving high speed around a cliff. After falling behind 3-0 in these Eastern Conference Finals to the Heat, it looked like the Celtics had gone too far with this. No team, of course, has ever recovered from that deficit. Maybe it will still come back to bite them. But two consecutive wins has reshaped this series and instilled belief again.

It’s just what this team does, even if they can’t point a finger on why.

“For some odd reason, even last year, we always seemed to make it a little bit tougher on ourselves,” Tatum said. “But what I do know is that you can see the true character of a person, of a team when things aren’t going well, and our ability to come together, figure things out when it’s not necessarily looking good for us. It’s unlike any team I’ve been on this year and last year, just the core group of guys being able to respond.

“I think that’s just a testament to our togetherness, obviously how bad we want it, and we’ve got a room full of determined, tough guys that push comes to shove, you look to the left and the right of you, believe that the guy next to you is going to do whatever it takes and go down fighting if it don’t work out.”

After Thursday’s Game 5 win, the Celtics are 7-1 in their last eight games facing elimination, with four of those wins coming on the road. They can add to that tally in Saturday night’s Game 6, which would force an improbable Game 7 on Monday in Boston.

How did the Celtics end up in this scenario? Marcus Smart insisted the Heat snuck up on them in this series. That thinking seems a little crazy considering the Celtics knew they had to respond and show fight after dropping the first two games in Boston before they were embarrassed and laughed off the court in Game 3 in Miami.

But perhaps they relaxed too much at that point and took it for granted. That’s when the Heat – the one team the Celtics can’t afford to let their guard down against – pounced.

“That’s the thing about sneaking up on somebody – they’re not supposed to know you’re coming,” Smart said. “So that’s what happened. We didn’t know, we didn’t see it, and they got us. So it wasn’t like we were trying to have that mindset. It’s part of the game, it’s part of life, it’s part of the roller coaster of playing in the NBA at the highest level. You’re going to have ups, you’re going to have downs, but figuring out when you get down how to get back up, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Maybe their past experiences are teaching them that they can relax, let games slip and still find a way. Maybe one day they’ll learn their lesson and show urgency sooner so they don’t put themselves in consistently challenging situations.

But this Celtics core – Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Smart and Al Horford – has been through a lot together in the postseason. They certainly didn’t hope to be down 0-3 in this series, but they’re confident they can overcome any obstacle.

“Experience is the best teacher,” Brown said. “We’re a resilient group. We’ve been through a lot. Obviously, it’s the first time being in this situation, but there’s a first for everything. So, we don’t look at it like we’re out. We just take it one game at a time, we just breathe, come out, play basketball, just take our time and do what we’re supposed to do. I think we’ll be fine. …

“It’s a blessing to be able to play this game each and every night. It’s a blessing to be in the playoffs, its highs, its lows, its intense moments. There’s moments where you’re pissed off. There’s moments where you’re extremely excited. It’s amazing. These next two games should be fun.”

Injury report

Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon is listed as questionable for Game 6 due to a right forearm strain.

Brogdon reportedly suffered a partial tear to the tendon leading from his elbow to his forearm in Game 1 against the Heat. He was playing through the injury but his playing time and performance dipped throughout the series before he exited in the second half of Game 5 and did not return.

“He’s getting his treatment,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Friday. “He’s been early throughout, and whatever his pain tolerance is, he’s doing the best he can. It’s just a day-to-day thing.”

If Brogdon can’t play, Payton Pritchard could be in line to fill in. … Heat guard Gabe Vincent, who missed Game 5 with an ankle sprain, is also questionable for Game 6.

Their humiliating Game 3 loss could have easily led to a sweep, to a painfully long summer. But they stayed together. The Celtics gathered the eve before Game 4, looked each other in the eye and made sure they were on the same page. One of their assistant coaches put their predicament in perspective.

“The seasons are like nine months long, and we just had a bad week,” Mazzulla said of the assistant’s message. “Sometimes you have a bad week at work. We obviously didn’t pick the best time to have a bad week, but we did.

“And we’re sticking together and fighting like hell to keep it alive, and the guys are really coming together.”

And now, it just got interesting.

As slim as their chances looked – facing a task no team in NBA history has accomplished – the Celtics have still believed. They still believed they were the better team than the eighth-seeded Heat. They believed they could come back. They warned not to let them get one win.

Now they have two. And now there’s real hope again after Thursday’s dominant 110-97 victory in Game 5 at a rowdy TD Garden, forcing a Game 6 on Saturday night in Miami, where they can become the fourth team in NBA history to force a Game 7 after falling into a 3-0 series hole. Four nights ago, that seemed unthinkable.

“Obviously, we didn’t imagine being in this position, being down 3-0, but when adversity hits, you get to see like what a team is really made of,” Jaylen Brown said. “I mean, it couldn’t get no worse than being down 3-0, but we didn’t look around, we didn’t go in separate directions. We stayed together. We doubled down on what we’re good at on defense, and now I think it’s a series. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and keep playing.”

“Game 3, that was as low as you can be,” Jayson Tatum said. “The good part about being that low is you only can play better. It’s only up from there. …

“I think part of it was just – being down 3-0, you understand how that’s never been done, all the talk about that. It kind of gave us a sense of just like, everybody is counting us out. We’re supposed to win. We’re supposed to be done, and I think we started to play a little bit more free, relaxed.”

And on Thursday, they played with more intensity, more aggression. It started from the opening tip.

For a second consecutive game, the outside shots fell for the Celtics as they hit 16 3-pointers – including six from Derrick White – that opened the floodgates. But they also, once again, set the tone on defense.

Marcus Smart was there, as usual, to take the challenge.

On the first play of the night, Smart helped on a play defending Bam Adebayo. The ball squirted loose. As it rolled toward Jimmy Butler, Smart dove head first to the floor to corral it and pass it to Tatum, who took it coast to coast for the game’s first points.

It was the first of 16 turnovers the Celtics forced on the Heat, and it sent a message.

“I just wanted to get us going,” Smart said. “You don’t want them to come in and get that energy early without fighting back. This series has been that for us.

“They’ve come in each game and they kind of knocked us around a little bit early. For us, we did the knocking around tonight.”

The Celtics were locked in. They surged to a first quarter lead behind overwhelming defense, incredible energy and hot shot making. Even after Tatum was whistled for an early technical foul – upset that he didn’t draw a foul call on a dunk – that threatened to quell the energy, the C’s just came back stronger. The Garden roared louder.

Three consecutive 3-pointers, including two from Smart, forced a Miami timeout. It did nothing to stop the Celtics’ avalanche of defense and 3-pointers as they took complete control and never let it go.

It all started from that tone-setting play from Smart.

“That was contagious,” Smart said.

After that opening surge, the Celtics’ lead was never cut to single digits. Duncan Robinson made back-to-back baskets to bring Miami within 11 midway through the second quarter but that’s as close as the visitors ever got. The Celtics never let the Heat take a lead. They never let them have hope that they could clinch a berth to the NBA Finals on their home floor.

Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 21 points, but it was their backcourt that created the difference as they found White and Smart for open 3-pointers. They were even more important on the defensive end, where the Heat got too comfortable in the first three games of this series.

But now there’s been a complete turn. The Heat are not making the shots they were making, and made just nine 3-pointers in Game 5. Their role players have slowed down. They’ve been bothered by the Celtics’ defense. Smart and White led the charge as the C’s forced a postseason-high 13 steals on Thursday night.

“Smart and D-White is the reason we won tonight,” Tatum said. “Those two guys, their ability to hit shots tonight, spread out the defense, and then making plays on the defensive end.

“I think we fed off that, that energy tonight.”

The locker room was quiet and low after Game 3. The noise on the outside grew louder, as this Celtics team, this championship favorite, looked to be on the verge of epic failure. But they didn’t let it consume them. Tatum, for one, deleted his Twitter account before the playoffs. The Celtics are a close group, and they never stopped leaning on each other.

“We’ve got a lot of love for each other, top to bottom,” White said.

That has shown through this week. The Celtics certainly didn’t want to put themselves in such a challenging situation, but they’ve used this moment – their lowest of the season – to show their character.

“I think just being together in moments of adversity, staying on the same page and sticking with it,” Brown said. “Doubling down on things that we need to do better, holding each other accountable has been the key. I think once we got ourselves together, we all looked each other in the eyes and said, ‘Hey, we’re not going out like this.’

“One, we represent the organization, but we also represent ourselves and our families, and obviously we haven’t performed the way we felt like we needed to perform. So that Game 4 was the start of the atonement, and now we’ve been able to pick up off that in Game 5, and hopefully we can carry it on to Game 6.”

And maybe, just maybe, do something no team has ever done before.

“We’ve got a really connected group,” Tatum said. “We’ve got a group of determined, tough guys that, like I said, I know I can count on. I know I’m going to look to my left and my right when all hope seems to be lost, when the game is on the line, our backs are against the wall, that everybody is going to go down fighting and give everything they have.

“That’s contagious because we truly – whether it’s ignorant belief, we do believe at all times that we still have a chance, that anything can happen.”

Brogdon is dealing with a partial tear in the tendon coming out of his right elbow, according to a report from The Athletic. But Brogdon is playing through the injury and hasn’t missed a game yet in the Eastern Conference Finals.

“He’s playing through it, giving us whatever he has, and we’re just kind of going through it like that, how he’s playing and how he’s managing it,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He’s fighting through, and grateful for that.”

According to the report, Brogdon – who is wearing a black sleeve on his arm – suffered the injury during Game 1 when he was boxing out the Heat’s Kevin Love in the first quarter.

Brogdon was probable for Game 2 with a right forearm strain and played, but his playing time has decreased as the series has progressed. After scoring 19 points in 37 minutes in Game 1, Brogdon played 26 minutes in Game 2 and then just 18 and 17 minutes in Games 3 and 4 in Miami, respectively, as his performance has noticeably declined. Brogdon submitted his first scoreless game of the season in Game 3 on 0-for-6 shooting, and he was shooting 21.4 percent from 3-point range in this series entering Thursday’s Game 5 after going a career-best 44.4 percent from deep in the regular season.

It didn’t seem like Mazzulla was interested in making a lineup adjustment, whether it was giving Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser more minutes. Grant Williams has seen an increased and important role in the meantime, playing 28.0 minutes per game in Games 2-4 after sitting out Game 1.

“It’s more about just putting in whatever we’ve got to do to win, whether it’s him or Grant or Rob (Williams) or Al (Horford), whoever we go with, whatever we’ve got to do to win,” Mazzulla said.

Moment of perspective

Before Game 5, Mazzulla was asked how he deals with the pressure and challenges of coaching in elimination games, like he is for the first time in his career. The coach was candid in his answer.

“Honestly? I met three girls under the age of 21 with terminal cancer, and I thought I was helping them by talking to them, and they were helping me,” Mazzulla said. “So having an understanding about what life is really all about and watching a girl dying and smiling and enjoying her life, that’s what it’s really all about, and having that faith and understanding.

“The other thing is you always hear people give glory to God and say “thank you” when they’re holding a trophy, but you never really hear it in times like this. So for me, it’s an opportunity to just sit right where I’m at and just be faithful. That’s what it’s about.”