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!

With the Celtics down 3-0 to the New York Knicks, not only do Boston’s playoff lives lay on the line, but so does an era. With the horrific play of Boston this postseason, many question whether we could be witnessing the last time Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce dawn a Celtics’ uniform.

The Knicks came in as the favorite to win this series, but not many could have seen this level of domination coming. The Celtics have looked old and slow, failing to score 80 points in any game so far.

Many were hoping that Boston left their offensive woes in New York, but they seemingly followed the Celtics right into the first few seconds of Game 3 as both Pierce and Garnett opened the game up by missing consecutive layups. That trend continued throughout the game as the Celtics shot just 40 percent.

The Celtics haven’t caught many breaks, but it appears they may have finally received one in the form of a J.R. Smith suspension. Smith was ejected n Game 3 for throwing an elbow at Jason Terry that knocked him to the floor.

Smith has been suspended for Game 4, giving the Celtics one less New York weapon to worry about on offense. The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year winner had been averaging 16.3 points per game in the series.

No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in basketball, but as Boston and New York fans know, it can be done in sports.

Back in 2004 the Boston Red Sox proved that anything is possible, as Garnett would say, by coming back down 3-0 against the New York Yankees.

While one win today might only prolong the inevitable end to this current era of Celtics’ basketball, a comeback has to start somewhere. Right?