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Celtics Ride Electric Garden Atmosphere into ECF

addByline("Taylor C. Snow", "Celtics.com", "taylorcsnow");

BOSTON – There’s a reason why the Boston Celtics fought so hard to gain home-court advantage this postseason.

That reason is the TD Garden crowd.

There is nothing like the atmosphere that Celtics Nation provides at the Garden, and should a playoff series go seven games, they will absolutely blow the lid off the building in order to make sure that Boston moves on.

That’s exactly what happened Monday night when the Celtics rode the electric wave of their home crowd to a 115-105 Game 7 win over the Washington Wizards while advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in five years.

The C’s were greeted by a sea of green Monday afternoon when they entered the arena. Every seat in the venue was draped with a green T-shirt sporting the slogan “#ItsNotLuck” above the trademark leprechaun logo.

By tip-off, those shirts were filled with screaming fans that produced a deafening decibel level from start to finish.

“It was ridiculous. It was fantastic. It was unbelievable,” Brad Stevens said of the crowd, finding no shortage of words to describe the environment. “I tried to tell my friends back in Indiana, even being in the last two years in the Playoffs, that there’s no place like this building in the Playoffs. And I’m not sure that I’ve even felt that this building had ever reached this level tonight, at least since I’ve been here.”

The crowd had a prominent impact on the players’ rhythm, whether it was coaxing Kelly Olynyk to a 14-point fourth quarter, or rattling Wizards guard John Wall, who missed his last 11 field goal attempts.

No player rode the wave of the crowd like Olynyk, who shot 10-of-14 for 26 points, nearly doubling his previous playoff career-high of 14 points. Fans cheered him on every time he touched the ball during the fourth quarter, and he responded by hitting five of his six shot attempts during the frame.

The Celtics’ faithful acknowledged Olynyk with a standing ovation when he checked out of the game with eight seconds remaining. He raised his arms to the rafters as a sign of thanks, to which they responded by chanting “KEL-LY, KEL-LY.”

“It was unbelievable to be in there and feel that energy, feel that enthusiasm, the passion that 20,000 people had,” Olynyk said after the game. “To just thrive off that was pretty special to be a part of, and hopefully we can relive that.”

The Celtics won’t have to wait long to do so. They will reenter TD Garden Wednesday night when they host Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Riding an incredible string of performances by LeBron James, Cleveland has reeled off eight consecutive playoff wins, as it seeks to coast through the postseason and defend its title.

The Celtics know this challenge will be unlike any they faced this season, but with their fans at their backs, they believe anything is possible.

“We got to get ready for the defending champs; we know that,” said Isaiah Thomas. “The good thing about it is we’ve got home-court advantage, so we’ve got to be ready on Wednesday to try to take care of home court. We know it’s going to be tough, but at this point anything can happen, and we really believe it.”

Remember how tight the race was between Cleveland and Boston during the closing weeks of the regular season? Remember how the Celtics fought tooth and nail to secure the East’s No. 1 seed?

Well, this is exactly why Boston put forth so much effort to gain the top position in the conference. Home-court advantage means everything to the Celtics, and Monday night’s Game 7 atmosphere proved just how much of a boost Celtics Nation can provide.

Fans will have to up their game – and their decibel level – even more Wednesday night when the defending champs come to town.