“I really don’t get that,’’ the Celtics forward said, “So the series hasn’t started yet?’’
Boston coach Doc Rivers, who does glib better than most NBA coaches, understood the logic.
“I know when you win your first two at home the first thing you tell your team is, ‘That’s what they’re thinking [the series hasn’t started].’ Even though, that’s not what they’re thinking. They’re thinking, ‘We’ve got to win the next game.’ ’’
But having been in the playoff trenches as a player and a coach and also observing them as a television analyst, Rivers made it clear that some things sound good even if they don’t exactly add up.
“I don’t even think about that kind of stuff,’’ he said. “I give that stuff zero thought. You’ve got to focus on the game. All that other stuff happens and if it happens you adjust to it. When I do broadcasting one day, then that’s the [stuff] I’m going to say.’’
Playing without home-court advantage for the first time since the 2004 playoffs, winning on the road already was a must for the Celtics. But dropping a very winnable series opener to the Cavaliers puts them in a position in which they’ll need to do it sooner rather than later.
“Your sense of urgency has to go up,’’ Pierce said. “You don’t ever want to go down 2-0, put yourself in that type of hole, especially against a team like Cleveland. The urgency is definitely there. Game 1 was important and we let it slip away.
“Hopefully, we can clean those things up, come back with the same type of mind-set, same type of energy, a little more perfection to our game and I think we’ll be all right. But definitely, we have to play Game 2 like it’s a Game 7.’’
The odds don’t favor the Celtics. The home team that wins Game 1 of a seven-game series goes on to win the series 86.5 percent of the time. Boston is 2-6 all time in series in which it has lost the opening game on the road. Cleveland is 10-0 in series when it takes Game 1.
