No team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit in the NBA playoffs but after their win at the Miami Heat on Tuesday, the Boston Celtics clearly sense a chance of history.

The Heat, now 3-1 up in the series, still only need one more win to progress to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets and remain clear favorites, so long as their flat second-half performance proves to be just an aberration.

But having responded to the threat of a clean sweep from the Heat, Boston are hoping that with a raucous home crowd behind them on Thursday at The Garden they can force a game six.

"As cliche as it sounds, we just tried to take it one game at a time. We tried to break it down. We didn't play well the first three games, we didn't deserve to win, but we didn't want that to define us, define the season," said Jayson Tatum, who led the Celtics with 33 points.

"We've still got a long uphill battle to go. But (this) was a good start. Just to try to carry this momentum towards Thursday".

Another below-par performance, after Sunday's heavy 128-102 loss on the home court, would have raised questions about the team's spirit and the future of head coach Joe Mazzulla.

But the Celtics again looked like the determined unit who finished second in the Eastern Conference regular season and dealt confidently with Atlanta and Philadelphia in the post-season.

"We didn't want to come out and lay an egg. We wanted to come out and play together, wanted to come out and trust each other, come out and play some defense, have some pride about yourself and find a way to win a game. We're all more than capable of doing it. We got it done," said Jaylen Brown.

Heat fans had arrived hoping to celebrate a seventh NBA Finals appearance for the three-times champions but left the arena deflated.

The question is whether, after an unexpected run as the eighth seed in the East, the Heat players will suffer a similar loss of energy and spirit?

"I didn't sense any of that," said head coach Erik Spoelstra.