While the rest of us obsess over the fact that the Celtics have yet to win a road game in these NBA playoffs, they are more concerned with the big picture.

“Our focus is to win the series. I think everybody else’s focus is about the road,” coach Doc Rivers said yesterday before catching a plane to Cleveland for Game Six of the second-round matchup with the Cavaliers. His team leads, 3-2, and can advance to the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit with a victory tonight.

“We know that this is the playoffs,” he said, “and winning on the road is difficult. We understand that. But our focus is to win the series, and if we can win it in Game Six, that’s great, and that’s what we want to do. But the point is to win the series.”

The Cavs, not the Celtics, must win tonight to send the series back to Boston for a Game Seven showdown on Sunday. The Celtics have lost only six games at home this season, none in the playoffs. Perhaps that’s why they are not worried.

“I don’t see the stress with us as far as the road,” said Rivers. “We want to win on the road, and we’re going to play well (tonight) on the road, but the focus for us is to win the series.”

The Celtics expect a tough game tonight.

The Quicken Loans Arena will be packed with 20,000 fans, and they will assume their sixth-man role, just as the 18,000 fans did at TD Banknorth Garden Wednesday night.

“Cleveland plays great at home, and we’re going in there and going to try to close it out,” Rivers said. “It’s going to be a difficult game. We know that going into it. When you want something as valuable as we’re all trying to get, it’s not going to be easy. We understand that.”

To end the series tonight, the Celtics will have to start fast and avoid the late-game meltdown that cost them Game Four on Monday night.

They will have to take the ball to the basket and not rely on quick jump shots. They will need another big game from Kevin Garnett (26 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocked shots in Game Five) and Paul Pierce (29 points, 7 rebounds).

They would welcome a breakout game from Ray Allen, who continued to struggle in Game Five (4-for-11 for 11 points), but who made a key play when he kept an offensive rebound alive in the last minute. And they will require another solid effort from point guard Rajon Rondo (20 points, 13 assists).

They must prevent LeBron James and the Cavs from breaking out to a double-digit lead.

“We have to stop their runs,” Rivers said. “In Atlanta, they just scored too many points for our defense. In Cleveland, that hasn’t been the case, except for Game Three. We played poorly. In Game Four I was very happy with the way we played but wasn’t happy with the way we closed the game. We had great shots; we just didn’t close the game. That was an opportunity for us, but we didn’t take advantage of it. So we have another opportunity. Obviously, the role players for Cleveland have to be contained, and they were not in Game Three or Four.”

Joe Smith scored 17 points in Game Three and Daniel Gibson 14 in Game Four. Anderson Varejao chipped in 12 points and 6 rebounds in Game Four.

Celtics fans shouldn’t expect any gimmicks or big changes tonight. Rivers has said all along that his players will continue to do what they do best. They just need to do it a little better on the road.

“Listen, everyone’s struggling on the road right now,” he said, alluding to the fact that Detroit is the only semifinalist to win a road game in this round. “I guess we could bring the scorekeepers, bring all the wives on the road. We’re not going to do that. We’re just going to show up and play basketball.”

mszostak@projo.com