Boston Celtics confidence remains high as they prepare for Game 4 with NY Knicks

NEW YORK – The Boston Celtics insisted they were not concerned by dropping the first two games of their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series against the New York Knicks.

They stuck to the story despite those two setbacks coming at home. Even the fact they swept the four regular-season meetings and nearly all observers projected New York to be the team down 0-2 did not cause a lot of distress.

Blowing 20-point leads in both Games 1 and 2? Painful, of course, but not devastating enough to wave the white flag.

Their performance improved mightily in the third game of the matchup, and now Boston have a chance to even the series at 2-2 when they play in New York on May 12 (May 13, Singapore time).

“You’ve got to beat us four times. That’s what it comes down to,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown. “Not twice, not once, not three. You’ve got to win four games, so there’s a lot of basketball to be played.”

Boston’s May 10 win came in superlative fashion.

The Celtics led by as many as 31 points and regained their three-point shooting touch, so that could be key in Game 4. After being a combined 25 of 100 from behind the arc in the defeats, Boston connected on 20 of 40 in the 115-93 rout.

Jayson Tatum and NBA Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard each made five. Pritchard scored 23 points after averaging just 11 over the first two games, while Tatum had 22 points.

“Who cares what the outside world is saying,” Pritchard said in reference to some of the chatter about Boston’s propensity for firing away from outside. “Everybody’s all saying that we shoot too many threes, but if you believe in your shot and you’re able to hit it,