Back to Boston

By Gary Dzen

June 16, 2008

1 minute to read

LOS ANGELES — The Celtics were going back to Boston anyways. But now they’ve got at least one more game to play.

Both the Celtics and Lakers were scheduled to fly back to the East Coast late this morning, arriving in Boston sometime this evening. Neither team will practice with Game 6 looming Tuesday night.

“It’s a terrible turnaround,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “It’s as tough as you can have. I think going West to East is tougher. Sleep patterns are messed up.

“But both teams have the same issue, so you know, it could come down to a game of mental toughness, who fights the fatigue mentally better than the other group.”

Celtics captain Paul Pierce said he’s trying not to think about the travel.

“We’ll get a nice flight home [Monday], finally get in in the evening and just try to stay on my schedule,” said Pierce. “Try to eat when we get in and go to bed at a good time and just try to stay on schedule. That’s all you can do.”

While the travel might be bad, the home court is definitely good for the Celtics, who have lost only one game at home this postseason.

“It’s going to be like coming into the amazon, into the jungle,” said Celtics forward Kevin Garnett. “I look forward to going home and playing.”

No team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals (0-28), but that hasn’t stopped the Lakers from thinking they can be the first.

“We just think about the next game, that’s all,” said Kobe Bryant. “That’s all we do. You can’t help but think obviously two, but to put it in more realistic terms, in training camp if you told us we’ll give you two games that you have to win to win a world championship, we would have took it in a heartbeat. This is a great opportunity for us.”