Garnett, Pierce shine as Celtics take command

DPA/Los Angeles

The Boston Celtics are a win away from a trip to the NBA Finals. Kevin Garnett had 27 points with 11 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 19, including a huge three-pointer with 52.9 seconds remaining and the visiting Celtics beat the Miami Heat 94-90 on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics can win the East with a victory in game six at home tonight in the best-of-seven series and punch a ticket to the NBA Finals. “We’ve done nothing,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “We’re playing a heck of a basketball team. So just because we’re going to Boston, I told them, we have to play. They’re not going to give it to us. We have to go get it.” Should the Celtics advance, they would play the winner between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder leads the match-up, 3-2, with potential close-out game six on Wednesday night at home. Ray Allen and Mickael Pietrus scored 13 points apiece while Rajon Rondo handed out 13 assists for the Celtics, who can become just the 15th team in NBA history to win a playoff series after dropping the first two games. “Thursday is our game seven,” Allen offered. Reigning league MVP LeBron James led the Heat with 30 points and 13 rebounds while Dwyane Wade scored 14 of his 27 in the final quarter. Chris Bosh finished with 14 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench, in his first action since straining a lower abdominal muscle on May 13. “I felt good and definitely had more to give,” said Bosh, who was held out of the pivotal fourth quarter. “When the time comes again I’ll definitely be ready to play more than I did tonight. Hopefully, in crunch time I’ll be out there with the guys.” The prohibitive favourites to win the NBA championship, the Heat now finds itself on the brink of elimination against the gritty Celtics, who were said to be too old to challenge. “It’s going to be an extremely difficult time but that’s what the playoffs are all about,” Bosh said. “In order to get to where we want to go we’re going to have to face huge challenges. I think this is the biggest challenge of our professional careers now. “In situations like this, we can only focus on what we have to do, go to Boston and get it done. Collectively and mentally, we have to be strong and focus on whatever we need to do to win.” The Celtics struggled early and fell behind by many as 13 in the second quarter but pulled to 42-40 at halftime despite Pierce and Rondo combining to shoot a nightmarish three-of-18 from the field. “We stayed with it,” Garnett said. “We had a rough first quarter, first half. We got our stops and made our run ourselves. And when we had to, we had stops.” Boston trailed by nine in the third quarter but a closed the period on a 15-1 run to take a 65-60 lead into the final frame. “We couldn’t get anything to go offensively,” James said. “They just picked it up and made some big shots at the end of the quarter.” With the game knotted at 85, Pierce hit the tie-breaking free throws and followed with his three-pointer over the outstretched arms of James from the left side with 52.9 seconds left to put the Celtics ahead, 90-86. “I thought that was the best shot for us when I saw James back up, and I was able to knock it down,” said Pierce, who finished six-of-19 from the field. “Paul is a big-time shot-maker, Rivers said of his perennial All-Star forward, “He always has been.” After Allen and Wade exchanged free throws, James hit a quick layup to get the Heat to within 92-90 with 9.4 seconds remaining. Rondo then fed Garnett, who made two free throws with 8.8 seconds left after a foul was whistled on Udonis Haslem, and the Celtics stole home-court advantage from the Heat as the more than 18,000 disappointed fans exited sold out American Airlines Arena. “We wouldn’t want to be in this situation but we never get too high or too low in a series,” James said. “We had an opportunity to come home and take a lead, but we didn’t. So we have to go up to Boston and win a game.”