The Boston Celtics disappointed in its first two games against Chicago, dropping both at home to go down 2-0 in the series. The confidence, swagger and passion Boston had during the regular season was suddenly diminished, and the chances of a 1-seed being defeated by an 8-seed became real.
The majority of outsiders began to give up on Boston and their chances of coming back — which, yes, still technically hasn’t happened yet — and believed Game 3 would be the same as the two that came before it. However, an injury to star guard Rajon Rondo and some pre-game motivation from a familiar legend helped turn things around for the Celtics on Friday.
The familiar legend? 2008 NBA champion Kevin Garnett, who woke up each Celtic player in the locker room with an intense explicit-filled voice message.
Following from Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com:
After being shown the video by teammate Avery Bradley, Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas decided to play it for the team before tipoff at the United Center. In typical Garnett fashion, the video was high energy and rife with expletives. But for a Boston team in need of a jolt given not only its lackluster play but Thomas’ coping with the tragic death of his sister, the message had the intended effect.
“Everybody was kinda pumped up. I almost felt like he was in the locker room with me again,” said Bradley, the only player on Boston’s roster who played alongside Garnett.
“It kind of energized us a little bit before the game, and it reminded us of what we’re playing for and what the Celtics stand for. … It’s funny, because he was our leader when he was here. He’s still part of this Celtics family. For him to go out of his way to send us a message like that, that means a lot to all of us.
“Like I said, it was a reminder of Celtics family. We have to play a certain way because they are watching. There’s a respect, the way that we play, and we have to play hard. Every single time we step on the floor, we have to leave everything out there. That has to be our mindset.”
Garnett’s message was played on a loud speaker inside of the Celtics’ locker room. Hearing his voice blaring throughout the room completely changed the magnitude of the message for the players.
“To me, personally, it was everything,” Crowder said. “It was just a little motivational speech. He said we looked like a team that wasn’t having fun. We looked like a team that wasn’t soaking the moment. We’ve just got to play for one another and play for the moment at hand, which is the playoffs, and have fun with it. Basically that’s all he was saying, with a little more KG into it.”
Added Crowder: “It was on the phone, but we put it on a Beats Pill [speaker]. We played it very loud in here. With him talking loud, you can only imagine how it got us pumped up. He was excited, we were excited. It was a great speech just for us to let go and have fun.”
Kevin Garnett is widely known as one of the greatest players in Celtics history. He brought a certain ferocity to the game of basketball that’s rarely been seen before, and brought the same mindset through his inspirational message before Game 3. The result? A Boston win, making the series 2-1 entering Game 4.
Perhaps this was the spark Boston had been desperately seeking since last weekend’s unfortunate tragedy. It’ll be interesting to see how each team responds on Sunday.
