They can sense it now.
Better yet, the Celtics can feel the end of this best-of-seven Eastern Conference series against the Orlando Magic after Tuesday night's 92-88 victory gave them a 3-2 lead.
They feel it much the same way Glen Davis has felt his individual game flowing, with 21 points and a winning shot at the buzzer in Game 4 and 22 points and a pair of clutch free throws in Game 5.
"When I hit two [jump] shots, and kept going, I was like, 'Man, this is how it feels; when you're in the zone this is what it feels like,' " said Davis, referring to his positive state of mind during Boston's fourth-quarter rally from a 14-point deficit with 8:48 to go.
"When I'm in the zone," he said, "I know what it is now, and I can take advantage of it."
Asked to describe what it was like to be in that nirvana-like state of play, Davis replied, "Have you ever been dancing? Have you ever danced before?" Then, Big Baby began to soulfully sway from side to side.
"You know, you're just dancing to a nice song . . . and you just let it flow," he said, snapping his fingers, gyrating his hips, and slowly rolling his broad shoulders. "Everything's going your way and you're not forcing anything, you're playing hard, and you feel like everything's going your way."
The Celtics hope to ride that momentum to a clinching victory in Game 6 tonight in Orlando, where they likely will encounter a desperate Magic squad after absorbing back-to-back gut-wrenching losses. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers, rested and relaxed after sweeping their first two playoff opponents, lay in wait to see who their dance partner will be in the Eastern Conference finals.
"We're playing freely. No pressure," said Kendrick Perkins. "Nobody expected us to win anything. So we're loose in this locker room."
That, however, may not be the sense in the Magic locker room, where tensions seemed to reach their breaking point Tuesday night. Frustrated by squandering a 77-63 lead, Dwight Howard criticized coach Stan Van Gundy for his questionable substitutions.
"We have to recognize when we have a lead instead of trying to burn the clock out," Howard said. "We just need to move the ball and that is the reason we were winning [by 10] with five minutes to go. We moved the ball, we ran, we got easy shots, and our coach has to recognize when he has a certain group out there and they are getting the job done and we have to leave those guys on the floor."
Celtics coach Doc Rivers, meanwhile, made all the right moves, reinserting his starters with 4:55 left and the Celtics trailing, 85-75.