[Hoot Gibson]

The Celtics have had a great season but have their backs against the wall tonight against Atlanta, down 3 games to 2. I think Brad Stevens is the best coach in the game right now at any level. My hope is that after getting the Celtics back to the top of the NBA, Stevens will return to the college game to succeed John Calipari. It's much more likely that Stevens will someday move to Bloomington to coach IU, but I would love to see him in Lexington.

Young and the Resilient: Celtics ready for Game 6

BOSTON -- While Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens might be the most meticulously prepared coach in the NBA, his young team is essentially a bunch of procrastinating college kids who sometimes only seem motivated by an assignment's due date.

After dropping the first two games of an Eastern Conference first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics responded with consecutive victories to make things interesting again. Tuesday's Game 5 loss in Atlanta put the Celtics on the verge of elimination, but Stevens expects his team's best basketball in Game 6 because of the position it's in.

"This team has been good and been resilient all year in that regard," said Stevens. "I’ve never questioned this group’s resiliency or willingness to stand up when times are tough or those type of things because they’ve been pretty good about that all year."

Celtics All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas suggested that it's simply the makeup of this young team to respond to adversity.

"I couldn’t pinpoint [why the team is resilient]," Thomas said. "It’s just the background that all these guys come from. We’ve always had a 'never back down' mentality. This group of teammates has always been counted out. They’ve always had that chip on their shoulders to prove everybody wrong. That’s just another stepping stone in everybody’s story."

ESPN's Basketball Power Index pegs the Celtics with a mere 20 percent chance at winning the series in seven games. But, playing at home at TD Garden for Thursday's Game 6, Boston has a 61 percent chance at sending things back to Atlanta. As ESPN Stats & Information noted, the Hawks have lost 10 straight playoff games in Boston.

The Celtics had a disastrous stretch in the middle quarters of Game 5 that put them in a 3-2 series hole, but Boston players are confident about bouncing back in Game 6.

"You have games like that. [Game 5 is] over," guard Marcus Smart said. "We’re coming back to our place and it’s time to fight."

Stevens and the team met to watch film Wednesday and the third-year coach said he won't overreact to Boston's Game 5 struggles when putting a plan in place for Game 6.

"I think you always start with a mountain load of information and your desire is to get it to basketball in its simplest form," Stevens said. "I’ve shared this quote with [reporters] before that my old boss at Butler [Todd Lickliter] used to quote [Abraham] Lincoln when he said, 'I apologize for the length of this letter, I didn’t have time to write a short one.' I think that’s a coach’s job, to try to make it as short, simple and sweet as possible and then let guys go out there and play a fast game with a clear mind, and that’s the bottom line. That’s my job and it’s what I’ll stay up thinking about doing. But the goal will just be to go out and do our stuff as well as we can.

[pjdoug]

The Celtics have had a great season but have their backs against the wall tonight against Atlanta, down 3 games to 2. I think Brad Stevens is the best coach in the game right now at any level. My hope is that after getting the Celtics back to the top of the NBA, Stevens will return to the college game to succeed John Calipari. It's much more likely that Stevens will someday move to Bloomington to coach IU, but I would love to see him in Lexington.

He is a good coach for sure. hopefully UK hires a top notch coach and stays at the top after Calapari leaves.