A Celtics win tonight all but deletes the Heat.

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “For the first time since the start of the season, the Celtics are trying to demoralize an opponent. The Heat are trying to figure out if they were the team they thought they were, having won 18 of 22 coming into the postseason. The Celtics are at a point where they can play a game without their star forward, knowing that his understudy feels no pressure filling his role. Miami is at a point where its star player can feel the load on his shoulders getting heavier and heavier, and even though he says he has faith in his teammates, he’s growing tired of answering for them. Going into Game 3 tonight in Miami, the Celtics are taking a ‘nothing is guaranteed’ attitude even though they’ve won all five meetings this season with the Heat. Miami finds itself in a “must-win’’ position against a team it hasn’t been able to beat. Both teams have their finger on the button. Boston’s says ‘delete.’ Miami’s says ‘panic.’”

Jeff Clark, CelticsBlog – “Despite being up 2-0, I think this game is very important to the Celtics. Not a “must win” (perhaps the most overused phrase in sports around playoff time) but an important game for momentum purposes. Give the Heat a win with their home crowd behind them and they might just gain enough confidence to take another win. Then they’re the ones with the momentum headed back to Boston and the script is flipped. Does anyone have enough confidence in this team’s mental fortitude after watching them limp home with a .500 record since Christmas?”

Michael Wallace, Miami Herald – Home hasn’t necessarily been comfortable for either team this season. Boston and Miami both finished 24-17, which was tied for the worst home record among 16 playoff teams. But the Heat has won 10 of its past 13 at home and hopes to ride its ‘Black is Back’ theme to victories Friday and Sunday to even the series. Still, it’s going to take more than friendlier confines to help rally against the Celtics, who have won 13 of the past 14 matchups between the teams. ‘Being at home helps a lot,’ Heat center Jermaine O’Neal said. ‘It helps to have that energy in the building that’s for you and not against you. But for this team right now, it doesn’t matter if we played in the sand in South Beach or wherever. We have to bring a different focus.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “The frustrated Wade has taken to scoring binges because he has lost faith in his teammates. And although he won’t publicly admonish O’Neal, Michael Beasley, Udonis Haslem, and Dorell Wright, they know they have let him down. Those customary Haslem baseline jumpers have rimmed off, and he has not been the defensive or rebounding menace of years past. ‘We’ve got to play a whole game,’ he said. ‘We haven’t played a complete game against these guys yet and that’s the most disappointing thing about it. Looking at the film and seeing some of the mistakes that we made that are so uncharacteristic of how we play, you know it’s disappointing. I’m not going to sit here and say all the mistakes are our mistakes and [the Celtics] have nothing to do with it. Just because we miss shots doesn’t mean we have to go from down 2 to down 20.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘We’re not spring chickens,’ [Doc Rivers] said. Therefore, if they go weary into a series with Cleveland, they will be dead ducks. But therein lies the neatly placed mousetrap. The Celtics must heed the need to prepare for an impending series with the Cavaliers, but they have to concentrate totally on the Heat to accomplish the goal. ‘Yeah, I’m not even going there, though,’ said Rivers, whose team holds a 2-0 lead in this first-round matchup. ‘I’m not even talking about another series. I just won’t. We’ve just got to focus on Miami, and whatever happens after that . . . Getting a series over with quick is good for everyone, honestly. But yeah, it would be helpful for us.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Udonis Haslem remembers a playoff series not that long ago in which the Heat were down 2-0 and, by all accounts, presumed dead on arrival when they returned home. It was the 2006 NBA Finals when they rallied from a 2-0 series hole to win the best-of-seven series in six games over the Dallas Mavericks. ‘I’ve been here before,’ Haslem said. ‘I’m not rattled or anything like that. A little disappointed. I felt we had an opportunity to get one game. But we’re still confident. We understand it’s a long series.’ But it won’t be long if they lose on Friday night, a point that is not lost on Wade. ‘It’s a game we have win. There’s no question about it,’ Wade said. ‘If they win the ball game, that’s the toughest series in the world right there, trying to come back from 3-0. You have to keep the perspective that the series doesn’t start until someone wins on the other team’s court. So we have to come home and take care of our home court.’”

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel – “While he continually stressed vigor and force after Thursday’s practice, Spoelstra said there would be an effort to draw more out of center Jermaine O’Neal and forward Michael Beasley, who have combined for 29 total points over the first two games. ‘We do need to have more involvement,’ Spoelstra said. ‘Guys need to be aggressive within the system, take plays off the ball movement. I think you’ll see Jermaine and Michael much more involved. It’ll be a concerted effort, also, on our part, to get them involved, but then for them to be aggressive and make the appropriate reads.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace has been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game officials in comments made to the media on April 19. The announcement was made Thursday by NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson.”

Scott Howard Cooper, NBA.com – ““I wish I had it to do all over again and, starting 20 years ago, I’d be suspending Phil and Pat Riley for all the games they play in the media,” Stern said in a press conference at the Ford Center moments before Game 3 of the Lakers-Thunder series. “You guys know that our referees go out there and knock themselves out to do the best job they can, but we’ve got coaches who will do whatever takes to work them publicly. And what that does is erode fan confidence and then you get some of the situations that we have. So our coaches should be quiet, because this is a good business that makes them good livings and supports a lot of families. And if they don’t like it, they should go get a job someplace else. I don’t mean to be too subtle. [Laughter] And I think that Phil’s a great coach. He’s a friend of many years. I just came by and said, ‘Hi.’ And he said, ‘I don’t like you today.’ I said, ‘I like you.’ But it’s corrosive. It’s corrosive. Because of the pressure cooker that is the NBA playoffs, over the years I’ve let it go. But when you hear the Chicago coach [Jackson] say, ‘Oh, this game was lost because NBC wants an extra game,’ you hear a New York coach [Riley] say, ‘Well, you know, what are you gonna do? Jordan gets all the calls,’ it sounds like a lot of fun, etcetera. Or you hear a Stan Van Gundy do what he wants to say and then the players join. We know, inside the community, what it’s meant to do. So, OK, it’s playoff time, everyone’s crazy. Back off. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t. I would stop it and the price wouldn’t be a modest $35,000 fine. It would be whatever a day’s pay is, and then two days pay, and then a week’s pay. And if someone wants to try me the rest of this playoffs, make my day. The game is too important and I don’t think that the people who trash it are respecting it, and we’ll do what we have to do. Players and coaches alike. They give the impression to our fans that referees somehow have an agenda. Yeah, they have an agenda – to knock themselves out to give the best calls that they can give, and then to send their checks home to their mothers and give the rest to charity.’”

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