Celtics vs. Sixers: Doug Collins' Post-Game Comments on the Celtics Are Spot On
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins had some really interesting thoughts on the Boston Celtics team that thoroughly dominated his young squad in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series on Wednesday night.
""I think they are looking at that other series a little bit," Collins said of the Celtics during his Wednesday postgame interview. "I think they see Chris Bosh being out. They see a tremendous opportunity for themselves."
"This was a much different team than what we saw in Boston," Collins said.
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Whether or not you think it was wrong for Collins to say this during a series in which his team is only down 2-1 and also has a potential opportunity to face the Miami Heat without Bosh, you have to agree with his comments.
Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, however, isn't believing that his team is looking to a possible conference finals showdown with Miami.
"Well that's not true, obviously," he said.
The Celtics now have a tremendous opportunity to reach the NBA Finals for the third time in five years, and they might get a huge break by not having to play Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, or the Heat at full strength, to get there.
For a Celtics team with several aging veterans that may be playing in their final weeks together, seeing the Eastern Conference's best teams get hit hard with crucial injuries has to be a major motivator.
When you watch the Celtics play right now, there's an energy and competitive fire that wasn't present during the regular season, or the playoffs last year. That's not to say they didn't give full effort during the season or the 2011 postseason, but there's a real sense of determination in their performance right now.
Kevin Garnett looks like he did during the 2003-04 season, when he captured the NBA MVP award. He has five 20-point games in the playoffs thus far, which is one more than he had in the past three postseasons combined.
Veterans such as Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Garnett know that this year's playoffs might be their last chance to win another championship ring. The Celtics are definitely demonstrating the cliche "play every game like it's your last" in the playoffs right now.
They will never get a better chance, as a group, to win a ring than the opportunity they currently have in front of them.
I can't imagine the Celtics aren't looking at Bosh's injury and the Heat's struggles and thinking they have a great shot to get back to the Finals.
Nick Goss is an NBA and NHL Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report, follow him on Twitter.
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