Boston turning into road Worriers

After killing almost everyone on the road in the regular season, the Boston Celtics have oddly become road kill in the playoffs.
The Celtics surprisingly dropped to 0-4 on the road in the postseason after being hammered 108-84 in Game 3 by the Cleveland Cavaliers in an Eastern Conference semifinals matchup Saturday night at Quicken Loans Arena. The Celtics now own a 2-1 lead in the best of seven series. To make matters worse for Boston, it is now 0-3 on the road against Cleveland overall this season.
So Kevin Garnett, what's the deal?
"There are no excuses for it," the Celtics' All-Star forward said. "If we had that answer we wouldn't get beat on the road, huh?"
Good point.
Believe it or not, the Celtics won an NBA-best 31 road games during the regular season. Do you remember that they were the first team since 2001 to win the tough Texas Triangle (games at San Antonio, Houston and Dallas)? How about the road wins against Detroit, Utah and the Los Angeles Lakers? Road wins seemed expected back then. But that was back then, not the postseason.
The Eastern Conference's top-seeded team was winless in three tries on the road against eight-seed Atlanta. And the Celtics' didn't fix their road confidence by any means by losing by a season-high margin (26) on the road here.
"We've lost four in a row on the road," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We haven't played well. Although, two of the games in Atlanta we did, but we lost them. Even if you don't (talk about 0-4 on the road), someone will. We have to win games. You got to win four. That's what you have to do."
Game 4 against Cleveland on Monday is pivotal for two major reasons for the Celtics. Boston will either go up an insurmountable 3-1 or go back home desperately needing to rely on home-court again with a loss. Also, the Celtics' regular-season road swagger will return with a win Monday while a loss could leave them a psychological mess away from TD Banknorth Garden.
"A playoff series doesn't start until someone wins a road game," Cavs guard LeBron James said.
To get a stranglehold on the series and get their road swagger back, the Celtics need to prove James right Monday.