Boston Celtics need to prove they can be consistent on the road

The Boston Celtics cannot allow their play to drop off at all while playing on the road

The Boston Celtics just finished off one of the most surprising starts to a conference finals. They have somehow built a 2-0 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers, and have done so in convincing fashion.

The Celtics remain undefeated at home, once again reaffirming how deadly it is to play in TD Garden in the playoffs. The problem is the Celtics do not want to get into a back and forth with the Cavaliers, and they know how vital it is to steal one victory on the road.

The Celtics have just one road victory this postseason, but they have looked like a different team since getting past the Milwaukee Bucks. They got the one road win they needed against the Philadelphia 76ers, and now they have an opportunity to prove that their road play against the Bucks was the outlier, and they can be expected to perform their best on the road.

Consistency has been a major problem all year for the Celtics, but they are playing sustainable basketball. No player has been overachieving beyond their capabilities, and no one is producing at an unsustainable rate with the role they are given.

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The difficult part is that the Celtics need all their pieces to be working. No one is playing over their head, but it is rare to see a team with seven different players all have great contributions on one night. If anyone of those players who got significant minutes was a liability in any way, then LeBron James‘ 42 point triple double would have been enough.

Right now, the Celtics have to anticipate that James will be at least that good, and he could get more help at home form the secondary players. That means winning on the road will require them to sustain the amazing balance and execution across the board in the first two games, and it is still too hard to trust the Celtics will get that.

Everyone is locked in and will continue to do the things that have allowed them to be successful. That being said, there are a lot of different things that can go wrong when you are depending heavily on so many different players.

The Celtics know they have to win on the road to see more success in these playoffs, but until they do that the uncertainty is going to linger. The win against the 76ers was a good start, but not enough to prove they can consistently be at their best on the road.

The Celtics have a lot of streaky scorers that always go off in bursts, and that makes things a bit uneasy on the road. Terry Rozier does not have a crowd behind him that will explode as he starts hitting multiple shots in a row. The Celtics need rhythm on offense and an away environment can’t make it more difficult to establish and sustain those kind of sporadic runs.

These Celtics have been playing at their highest level and all together at home. On the road, they have been all over the place. This is also the healthiest they have been on the road, and the more time these guys get to play together the better they will be at getting good contributions from everyone.

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The Celtics know what an opportunity they have in Cleveland, but they also know how difficult James is going to make it. If there is any drop off from the way they played in the first two games, they will not come through with a victory and will be coming back home with a tied series.

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