Will the Celtics close out the Wizards in Game 6?

Debate the answer with Chad Finn and Boston sports fans at The Sports Q.

Celtics fans salute Avery Bradley as he heads back up court after hitting a three-pointer in Game 5. Jim Davis / The Boston Globe

By Chad Finn

May 11, 2017

2 minutes to read

Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, email, his

Friday chat, and any other outlet you prefer. He’ll pick one each day (except for Saturday) to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.

Couldn’t have been more impressed with the Celtics’ win in Game 5. Showed a lot of toughness up and down the roster and Avery Bradley once again reminded us why he’s so important. I know they got crushed twice in D.C., but is this win a turning point that will carry over to Game 6? I kind of think it will. – Steve D.

Well, as I see it, we can do two things here, Steve, in trying to figure out how the rest of the series will play out:

We can apply common sense, which given how dominant each team has been on its home court – every game in this series has been decided by double-figures, the last three games by at least 19 points – suggests that the Celtics are winning this in 7 since they have home-court advantage. Maybe the Celtics broke the Wizards last night – I’d like to believe that theory, and the visitors, especially John Wall, were oddly listless. But I tend to think it was just another instance of the pattern of this series playing out. The home-court advantage, for whatever reason, is massive for these two teams, perhaps because they’re both pretty emotional.

The second thing we can do is believe the recency bias. The Celtics were downright great last night. The only suspense in that game came when the Wizards scored the first four points and it looked as though they were primed to rocket to another fast start. Instead, the Celtics dominated from that point to the final buzzer. That makes you believe that the team we saw last night is who they are, and who they will be again when they meet in D.C. Friday.

So which approach should we take? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ditching the common sense approach and instead using the most recent performance of this Celtics team as my guide. They were downright great Wednesday. Therefore, they will be downright great again Friday, no matter the venue. The Celtics get it done in 6.

What do you guys say? Will the Celtics wrap it up in the next meeting, or will the series come down to a Game 7? Let me know what you think. And please, no swearing at Kelly Oubre in the comments.