The Celtics will be at home for this game, so that should give them an advantage. Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks may have some fuel added to their fire as well because of the comments that Jordan Crawford made at the end of Wednesday night’s game.

The Celtics will still be fighting for their playoff lives at the end of the day. So that should be more than enough motivation for them to get out of bed today. We’ll see how things work out by the end of the game. Here are the keys to victory:

Three Keys to Victory

• Kevin Garnett must rebound

Kevin Garnett has to be the master rebounder that he’s been in the past three games. Garnett has 35 rebounds in the last two games. That’s kept the New York Knicks from converting second chance opportunities. That’s huge for their offense in the first few games. There were key offensive rebounds that the Knicks had that put the Celtics away. They haven’t been able to close Boston out because of their better rebounding.

• Keep Raymond Felton out of the paint

Raymond Felton being in the paint allows the Knicks to get decent looks from beyond the arch. As Hardwood Houdini writer Trey Adell pointed out, the Knicks have been able to take advantage of Boston through the pick and roll multiple times in this series. That can’t be something that Boston allows in game 6. They snuck out with wins in the two previous games even though it was effective, but you never want a point guard to control the game by probing the paint. That doesn’t equate to wins.

• Play a full 48 minutes

The Celtics played their best outing as a team in the playoffs in game 5 and if they want to stay alive then they’ll need to do the same thing. Offensively they’ve struggled but defensively they’ve been fine. They’ve got to keep that defensive grit going and force Carmelo Anthony to take difficult shots. On offense, they’ve got to get a full game out of Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Jeff Green. If they can do that then we’ll see the Celtics in the Garden for game 7.

Apr 28, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) drives the ball against Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce (34) during overtime in game four of the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs at TD Garden. The Celtics defeated the New York Knicks 97-90. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics will visit Madison Square Garden to fight for their playoff lives once again. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit, but the Celtics made progress the other night taking their first game against the New York Knicks after dropping the first three.

They scored 97 points against a Knicks defense that held them under 80 points in every other game of the series. Jason Terry snapped out of whatever trance he was in and shot 7-10 from the field for 18 points. He made a lot of plays down the stretch to seal the game.

With all of the talk about retirement for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce recently, they sure didn’t look like they were going to retire in the last game. Paul Pierce scored 29 points, grabbed eight rebounds and passed out six assists as well. Garnett got 17 rebounds on the night also and was the anchor of the Celtics defense once again.

Three Keys to Victory

• Score score score!

Apr 20, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) shoots over Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce (34) during the fourth quarter of game one of the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 85-78. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics are facing a pivotal game 2 against the New York Knicks tonight. The Celtics need to find a way to snag homecourt advantage from the Knicks in this series.

The Celtics defense was more than enough to keep them in position to win the first game of the series, but their offense faltered in the end. After a blistering 53 point first half leaving New York searching for answers defensively.

The Knicks eventually found those defensive answers in the second half and held Boston to 25 points in the second half including eight in the fourth quarter. Here are the three keys to the game if the Celtics want to win tonight.

Three Keys to Victory

• Beat the double team

The Knicks found a way to consistently double the Celtics in the post and off of pick and rolls. After switching pick and rolls for much of the first half against the C’s, the Knicks flipped their strategy into leaving the shooter and helping on the primary ball handler. The Celtics were primarily Kevin Garnett and Avery Bradley to switch Iman Shumpert from off of Paul Pierce in the first half and it worked for a while. The Knicks countered by leaving the roll man–Bradley or Garnett–and aggressively trapping Pierce to try to force arid passes and turnovers.

To beat this, the Celtics simply need to hit shots. Having a non-shooting threat like Avery Bradley isn’t the best particular strategy, but he can always roll to the rim and have the ball move until it finds him.

The Celtics should move away from trying to post up because Jason Terry and Courtney Lee aren’t hitting their outside shots. If that’s going to continue to be the case, the Celtics have no one to play inside out with. That renders the post obsolete for them until otherwise.

• Find ways to get Jeff Green to his right

The entire NBA knows that Jeff Green is better primarily going to his right. The Celtics did a great job of finding him in transition and allowing him open lanes to the right. The Celtics need to transfer this into some of their halfcourt sets for this series. The Knicks are going to shade Jeff Green to the left side of the floor, but if you run him off of screens coming from his left, that will easily free his right hand up. Take a look at the video below to see what I’m talking about.

The ball was stagnant in the second half for the C’s during Saturday’s contest. Green wasn’t really moving around the floor probing and catching the ball on the move. When he caught it he’d be at a standstill position holding the ball. Green is a player who needs the ball in motion with the defense reacting to him not the other way around.

• Kevin Garnett must play big minutes

Defensively the Celtics were good, but a lot of their late collapse had to do with Kevin Garnett being out of the game. The Knicks were afforded many a driving lane with Garnett out of the game. In order to keep J.R Smith and Carmelo Anthony from getting to the inside and bullying their defenders, Garnett is going to need to play big minutes.

The only way that is going to happen is if Garnett is playing his best offensive basketball as well. The Celtics can’t afford to have Garnett floating around the midrange area and mucking up the spacing even further. Its likely that Garnett won’t go 4-12 again, but if he does then the Knicks will leave him open once again. The Celtics will be faced with another tough decision of whether or not to leave him on the floor or bench him.

As I said in a post about Garnett’s floor time earlier today, the combination of Bass and Green performed well in 30 minutes of action on Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if that lineup was utilized more down the stretch.