The juggernaut Boston Celtics, led by the trio of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, assembled a tremendous 31-10 road record during the NBA regular season.

In the playoffs, they’ve played exactly three road games–and lost them all.

This Celtics team is the same that everyone was ready to crown as champion just weeks earlier. And they struggled on the road against an overachieving Hawks squad–again–in Game Six. The Celtics must win Game Seven on Sunday, or they’re done.

The explanations for the Celtics’ woes, according to the BOSTON HERALD, have been varied:

“It’s hard to put a finger on,” said Ray Allen.

James Posey smiled and shrugged.

“I wish I could answer that,” said the Celtics forward. “We just put ourselves in a situation of surviving.”

Doc Rivers last night pointed to another huge free throw discrepancy. The Hawks attempted almost twice as many free throws (47-25) as the Celtics, and scored 11 of their 24 fourth-quarter points from the line.

“We haven’t been aggressive defensively,” said Rajon Rondo. “We’ve shown it in spurts, but I think they’re beating us off the dribble and getting second shots. Then they get the fouls.”

Their fourth-quarter collapse featured the sort of errors that rarely have occurred all season. Pierce fouled out with 4:44 left and griped his way into a technical foul that produced a very important free throw for Atlanta.

Boston, obviously should win tomorrow and advance. That is, unless David Stern announces today that first-round playoff series will be expanded to a “best-of-13″ format.