As the home losses pile up, the Celtics aren't concerned. Should they be?

Sam LaFrance | May 10, 2024

Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Thursday's home playoff loss for the Boston Celtics marked their 15th since 2021, bringing their postseason winning percentage on the parquet down to .500.

This was the second time in five games that Boston has let an opposing team win a game in their building this spring. To put that into perspective, that's half as many losses as they had there all season, when they ripped off an impressive 37-4 record at home.

"I'm not sure," Al Horford said of Boston's playoff struggles at TD Garden (h/t CLNS Media). "I really don't have an answer for that and now we have to look at the game 3 and that has to be our focus and go in there to a very hostile place."

The Celtics have fallen into the same trend as they have in past series. Dropping one of the two home games at the beginning of series has put them in difficult spots in the past. In 2022, they fell in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks. A year later, they did the same thing against the Philadelphia 76ers. In the next round, they dropped both Games 1 and 2 to the Miami Heat. Then, this year they've failed to sweep the opening home stand in both series so far.

Yes, Boston went on to win three of the four aforementioned series. The fact of the matter is that they consistently made those series wins more difficult than they needed to be with their poor play at TD Garden.

The trend isn't something that Jaylen Brown and his teammates seem to be overly concerned with. After the loss, he pinned the result on poor shooting, poor defense, and strong shooting from the Cavs.

“Last year is last year," Brown told reporters Thursday (h/t Noa Dalzell). "Right now, we shot the ball both games that we lost here at home incredibly bad. They shot the ball really well. We didn’t play defense to our level tonight.”

Jaylen Brown on the Celtics’ poor home playoff record:

“Last year is last year. Right now, we shot the ball both games that we lost here at home incredibly bad. They shot the ball really well. We didn’t play defense to our level tonight.” pic.twitter.com/KqbeoNDnmN

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzellNBA) May 10, 2024

Though the team doesn't seem to be worried about their inconsistencies at TD Garden, history would say that it's pretty important to capitalize on home court advantage.

Of the NBA Champions since 2000 (excluding the Bubble Los Angeles Lakers, who played all games at a neutral site), just five teams have lost three or more games at home on the way to the title. No team has lost more than four times in their own building, with the 2003 San Antonio Spurs (8-4) and 2019 Toronto Raptors (9-4) being the only two to have a quartet of home losses.

On the same note, history tells us that home losses do happen to even the best teams. Only the 2017 Golden State Warriors had a undefeated run on their own floor. Nine teams dropped just one home game on the way to the title, while eight dropped a pair.

For what it's worth, Thursday's defeat shouldn't spell doom for the Celtics. Their roster is far more talented than Cleveland's is and just about anything that could've went wrong did go wrong in Game 2. There's plenty of room for improvement as they head to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for Saturday's Game 3.

Whether or not the Cs can continue to get away with failing to protect the parquet as the rounds go on, may be a different story.