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The Celtics aren’t losing hope on the chopping block.

This year’s NBA playoffs have been a major nail-biter for the Boston Celtics, who on three separate occasions now have found themselves facing potential elimination. In all three of those elimination games, however, they’ve managed to turn the tables and keep their heads above water, once on their home turf and twice on the road. Tonight, the Celtics are playing the Golden State Warriors on their home turf, and once again, they’re at risk.

According to small forward Jayson Tatum, his team has become naturally predisposed toward optimism in the face of less-than-stellar odds. “It hasn’t been easy. It’s been extremely tough,” he said in an interview ahead of the game. “We’ve had some tough losses. Losing Game 5 against Milwaukee was extremely tough. Knowing we had to win two, go on the road. Losing Game 6 against the Heat was extremely tough.

“In those moments, we just responded. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think just our will to want to win, just trying to figure it out.”

using every opportunity to improve pic.twitter.com/OtMstltqbx

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 15, 2022

“Everything has been a learning experience,” shooting guard Jaylen Brown said. “We wear everything that we learned this year as a badge of honor that we kind of wear. We don’t let it hang over our heads. We bounce back. We’ve been able to respond well all year. We’re looking forward to the challenge. We got to embrace it. Ain’t no other way around it. Last game on our home floor to kind of embody our whole season. We’re looking to give it everything we got. We are not scared. We do not fear the Golden State Warriors. We want to come out and play the best version of basketball that we can.

“We know it’s a good team over there. We know they’ve done it before. But we have all the belief in ourselves. We’re going to come out and leave it all out there. That’s the whole intent.”