Greg M. Cooper-USA Today Sports
On Sunday afternoon, the Boston Celtics will be facing a ton of adversity as they look to avoid being swept out of the playoffs by the red-hot New York Knicks.
However, following a Flagrant 2 foul and immediate ejection for throwing an unnecessary elbow in Friday night’s Game 3 win, the Knicks will be without the NBA’s sixth man of the year in J.R. Smith. Sure, New York can still complete the sweep without Smith, but don’t expect it.
Boston is the home team again on Sunday afternoon and despite being simply embarrassed thus far in their series with the Knicks, are still focused on taking one game at a time. The Celtics would need to make NBA history if they hope to prevent their season from ending here in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, as no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.
With all that aside however, Smith’s absence is sure to provide an impact. The sad thing about his ejection on Friday and suspension for Sunday is that the play was complete unnecessary. Smith threw an elbow at Jason Terry with the game virtually out of hand — he simply should’ve had a cooler head. Regardless, he won’t play on Sunday and that’s 16.3 points per game in the postseason that the Knicks will not have at their disposal. New York has players like Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, and Pablo Prigioni that can step up, while additional minutes will likely be expected for Steve Novak and possibly Quentin Richardson.
With their backs against the wall however, don’t expect Boston to roll over. The Celtics have been beat to a pulp thus far in this series and although it would take NBA history to come back at this point, their focus for now remains on Sunday and simply avoiding a sweep.
Look for this series to continue into next week with a Boston win on Sunday.
Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS
