(via @Jose3030)
Chances are you didn’t stay glued to the TV set long enough to see the glorious return of Dexter Pittman. He was on his best behavior for the final 56 seconds of the game, even though he had a Lance Stephensonish target if he had chosen in the form of E-Twaun Moore.
Never heard of Moore?
Well, garbage time will often reveal a little something, like the identity of the 12th man on the Celtics roster.
That would be Moore, who put up a trillion along with Pittman, Juwan Howard and Terrel Harris in the final minute of Boston’s 101-91 victory over the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals as the Celtics trounced the Heat in a must-win game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, a game in which Boston led by as many as 24 and virtually locked it up by the time the third quarter ended with the scoreboard reading Celtics 85, Heat 63.
So the ECF is a 2-1 series just like the WCF, which resumes tonight in San Antonio with the Spurs’ 20-game winning streak about as relevant as the fact that no New York Mets pitcher has had ever thrown a no-hitter in the franchise’s 51 years of existence.
All streaks eventually come to an end (unless you are a Chicago Cubs fan), and Miami’s five-game victory string is just a footnote now.
So hold off on date night Saturday and Sunday, fellas, unless your significant other is a hoops junkie. Tonight and tomorrow will provide some must-see TV instead of the alternative, which would have been a shot for the Spurs and/or Heat to finish off a sweep.
There was little drama to Friday night’s Game 3, just a step-by-step dismantling of the Heat by a Celtics team clearly energized by the support of its home crowd and the interior play of Kevin Garnett. There are no questionable technical fouls to debate as there were after Game 1, there are no swallowed whistles to contemplate, as there were after Game 2, and there certainly weren’t as many free throw attempts for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as they’d had in Miami.
If anyone is going to complain about the officiating, it will not be Celtics Nation as it has been for the better part of this past week.
What’s worth pondering is whether the Heat have a bounce back performance inside them as they did in Game 4 of the Indiana series, or whether the different dynamic of this series (they are ahead 2-1, whereas they trailed the Pacers 2-1) causes them to lay another egg before the series returns to Miami for Game 5.
From Howard Beck of the New York Times: “The foul was hard and sudden, and it left Kevin Garnett flat on his back, his lanky frame spread across a broad expanse of green-toned hardwood. He flipped over, put his knuckles to the floor and pressed hard for eight push-ups, the din at the TD Garden growing louder with each one. It was only the second quarter, but the Boston Celtics had made their point: down, not out. Prone, but still kicking. Garnett provided the symbolism Friday night, then followed through with enough points, rebounds and determination to lead the Celtics to a series-saving 101-91 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. Miami leads the series, two games to one. There was nothing subtle about the Celtics’ agenda. They wanted Garnett deep in the paint, the ball in his hands or sailing toward him for easy layups and dunks. He shot 16 times, converted 10 times and finished with team highs in points (24), rebounds (11) and push-ups. “My uncle taught me to do push-ups on my knuckles,” Garnett explained. “I don’t know who do push-ups in here, but there’s very few who do it on their knuckles. That’s some Army-Navy type stuff.” How tough is it? “Try it,” he said.
For the first time in the series, Boston outscored Miami in the paint (58-46) and took more free throws (26-20). And if anyone had a beef with the officiating, it was Miami. LeBron James attempted only five foul shots — 19 fewer than his Game 2 total, and Dwyane Wade took none, the first time that has happened in a playoff game since his rookie season.
Of the 20 foul shots the Heat did attempt, they missed 10.
And of the last 15 trips Miami has made to Boston, they’ve lost 14.
The Celtics are now 7-1 at home in the postseason, and Garnett is juiced. As for Rajon Rondo, there was no duplication of his 44-point effort in Game 2 loss, but he had 21 points, 10 assists and six rebounds and made every fourth-quarter play the Celtics needed to hold off the Heat’s inevitable charge.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “Together, Garnett and Rondo have been Boston’s most consistent two stars in these playoffs. Together, they’ve found a commonality of cause. Together, they drive these Celtics now. “There were times when they really clashed,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers told Yahoo! Sports on Friday night. “But the difference now? They clash and recover. They have an amazing friendship now. But it took time. It took time, and it took trust.” Desperation delivered the day for the Celtics. Down 2-0, down over a devastating Game 2 overtime loss, this was an impassioned pursuit of victory. After Rondo’s 44 points on Wednesday night, there was nothing that Rivers needed to tell his point guard except this: Keep running the team. They had been so fortunate with his deft outside shooting, but Rivers understood that those jumpers are fool’s gold, and above everything else, the ball had to go somewhere else on Friday night. “Throw it up!” Doc Rivers told Rondo and his teammates. Garnett is the tallest player on the floor, and sometimes basketball can be so simple this way. “Throw it up in the air,” Rivers told them. “Kevin will go get it.” Lobbing the ball to Kevin Garnett in the post became a top priority for the Celtics in Game 3. So they started lobbing passes over the fronting Heat defenders, and there was Garnett catching the ball and making his moves on Miami. Garnett had made his career shooting those arching jumpers, but he was determined to pound the Heat inside the paint. This made life easier for the Celtics’ shooters, and Paul Pierce (23 points) and Ray Allen (10 points) benefitted. Most of all, Garnett, Pierce and Rondo made 18 trips to the free-throw line.”
From Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald: “Playing without Chris Bosh, and against a proud, desperate Boston Celtics team with championship pedigree and a rabid crowd behind them, the Heat needed extraordinary efforts from both of its superstars Friday. Miami got a very good performance from LeBron James, but not enough from Dwyane Wade, and too little support from several others, excluding Mike Miller. James did all he could to keep his team from being buried on a night when he again filled the boxscore with 34 points on 16-for-26 shooting, with eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks. Wade showed a pulse after halftime, but his overall work (18 points, four rebounds, four assists, three turnovers) wasn’t nearly up to his standards. But here’s what most stood out: After getting a combined 35 free-throw attempts in Game 2 – 24 from James, 11 by Wade – the two combined for only five, all by James. And James missed four of those five. For perspective, Wade did not get to the line only three times during the regular season, and in those games, he played three minutes (before being injured), 29 minutes and 32 minutes. He logged 41 minutes Friday. The last time Wade didn’t get to the line in a playoff game was during his rookie season – 2004 against the Hornets. But he said afterward that he didn’t believe his approach was any different Friday. “I played my game, I attacked,” Wade said. “It just wasn’t meant for me to get to the line tonight.”