Boston Survives Miami & LeBron

The Celtics needed a win, and they got it thanks to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The two of them combined for 47 points as Boston held off a late rally from Miami. Boston did whatever they could, got contributions from whoever they could, and along with Rajon Rondo (even if he was back to air balling triples) going for 21 points and 10 assists, they survived in Game 3, 101-91 against the Heat. LeBron James dropped 34 and eight, but it was never enough. Miami fell behind big in the second half, and even a late run wasn’t enough to keep their heads above water. Kevin Garnett’s first bucket came off a beautiful spin move in the post against Ronny Turiaf. Of course, Jeff Van Gundy had to call it the “Dream Shake.” Can we stop this? First of all, it wasn’t a Dream Shake and secondly, David Robinson would probably hate you for calling anything by that name. Trust us when we say he wouldn’t be falling for that move from KG (unless Garnett travels/switches pivot feet, which he seems to do every other time in the post) … To hate on Garnett some more since we’re in the mood, after a tough fall in the lane during the second quarter, he tried to show he was okay by doing a bunch of terrible push-ups that even Eddy Curry wouldn’t have been proud of. Does anyone know who the first player in the league was to start doing that? We want to see World Peace fall down hard next year and immediately bust into a full P90X workout … The Celtics then went on a 15-0 run while Miami went nearly nine minutes without a point at the close of a frenetic first quarter. It wasn’t the kind of defense expected from the Heat either. Boston shot 63 percent, and despite that, the Heat shot over 60 percent and only trailed by two. They were giving the Boston PA announcer a workout… three different times in the first six minutes, the Heat scored almost immediately after a Celtic bucket … Mario Chalmers was out there playing like he was one of the Big Three: driving, going into early offense, talking smack to everyone in a Celtic uniform. Not sure what’s gotten into him lately but he’s actually turned into a decent NBA player. We know, crazy right? Or at least… he looked decent for the first quarter and then disappeared … At the end of the first quarter, Keyon Dooling was putting all those pregame energy drinks to good use, helping to spearhead a 8-0 Boston run to close the quarter … During the pregame, everyone in black was complaining about how cold the arena was. Back in the day, the Garden was notorious for turning the heat WAY up in the vistor’s locker room before games in an effort to get them to sweat it all out. They were apparently trying to cool off LeBron James because he was scorching. He hit seven of his first nine shots, scored 11 in the first eight minutes, and 16 in the first nine and a half minutes. James had come to the arena on the first bus to workout, and apparently worked on everything outside of free throws – dude couldn’t hit anything from the line. Outside of Cleveland, nobody in the league hates him more than Boston, and that’s probably part of the reason why he always plays so well there. That just comes from the fact that Boston hates on every great player that isn’t from New England, and then goes and gives their own guys like Marquis Daniels a standing ovation (they did last night) for every little contribution … On Friday afternoon, we put together the five greatest playoff performances of Paul Pierce’s career. What do you think? … And we’re not sure if JaVale McGee was watching the game last night, but he was doing this and freaking everybody out with his weirdness … We’re out like Rondo’s jumper.