BOSTONTwo games into the Eastern Conference finals and much of the talk has been about officiating.
For the Boston Celtics, that's almost never a good thing.
Regardless of how the first two games -- both Celtic losses -- have been called, they're done with.
Over.
The C's have no choice but to move on, because dwelling on the past doesn't do them a bit of good moving forward with a Game 3 matchup on Friday night that is indeed a must-win game.
Having lost the first two games, a third straight loss would put the Celtics in the kind of hole that no team in NBA history has ever been able to successfully dig themselves from underneath.
"We'll get past that distraction," said C's coach Doc Rivers. "I think we've already moved past it and by (Game 3), we'll be ready to play."
The bigger challenge for the C's coming into Game 3, is getting past the disappointment of their 115-111 overtime loss in Game 2, a game in which the C's did pretty much all that they felt needed to be done in order to win.
"We still know we have to play better," Rivers said. "Our guys are very confident going into Game 3."
That confidence to some degree stems from the play of Rajon Rondo, who had a game for the ages -- 44 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
"Where I was happy with, Rondo had one of his best games in not predetermining what he wanted to do," Rivers said. "He took what they gave him, and made something from that. Of all the adjustments he made from Game 1 to Game 2, that was it. If they gave him the elbow jump shot, he took it. If they got on him, he drove. If they tried to double, he made the pass. He didn't predetermine his game, and he stayed aggressive, in attack mode. I thought that was very important for him."
So was getting Paul Pierce to be more assertive in Game 2. Pierce finished with 21 points on a number of jumpers, lay-ups and dunks.
Even with more aggressive play, the Celtics still came up well short on free throw attempts (29) in comparison to the Heat (47).
"Not gonna touch that, I can tell you that." Rivers said. "Paul Pierce attacked just as much as LeBron James attacked (in Game 2). I'll leave it at that."
The focus for the Celtics now is to continue finding ways to get better, and most important, find a way to win.
"We made improvements from Game 1 to Game 2," Rivers said. "We have to make more improvements from Game 2 to Game 3. I think we will."