Joe Mazzulla: Watching a girl dying and smiling and enjoying her life, that's what it's really all about. Having that faith

The Boston Celtics came back to beat the Miami Heat 110-97, cut their lead down to 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals and keep dreaming of turning the series around.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla spoke about the unique inspiration he hopes to instill in his players as they aim to achieve an unprecedented feat.

Throughout NBA history, there have been 150 instances of teams starting a Playoff series with a 3-0 disadvantage, and none of them have managed to overcome such odds and win the series.

"I met three girls under the age of 21 with terminal cancer," he noted.

"And I thought I was helping them by talking to them, and they were helping me. And so, having an understanding about what life is really all about. And watching a girl dying and smiling and enjoying her life, that's what it's really all about. And having that faith and understanding."

Jayson Tatum hails team's character

Boston star Jayson Tatum stressed that the Celtics' character shows up when the team goes through the most difficult situations.

"For some odd reason, even last year, we always seemed to make it a little bit tougher on ourselves," Tatum said after the game.

"But what I do know is that you can see the true character of a person, of a team when things aren't going well, and our ability to come together, figure things out when it's not necessarily looking good for us, it's unlike any team I've been on this year and last year, just the core group of guys being able to respond."

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