COMMENTARY
Their degree of difficulty is now steeper than Heartbreak Hill, and if they don’t get their collective act together in Game 3 Saturday afternoon in New York, the Celtics are going to own a new heartbreak of their own, one almost entirely self-inflicted.
The 18th banner, collected last summer, dangles from the Garden rafters as a lovely green-and-white reminder of what this team — which retained every significant player from a year ago — can achieve when at its best.
The Celtics, homegrown stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in particular, overcame past playoff agonies (plural), and seasons of growing pains to win that championship.