76ers vs. Celtics Game 6: Brandon Bass Will Keep C's Rolling in Series-Clincher

For much of this postseason, the Celtics' problem has been that when the Big Four aren't producing, the team gets steamrolled. Given the emergence of Brandon Bass, that's no longer the case. 

Bass offers the Celtics exactly what they need to be truly effective this postseason: He gives the Big Four some leeway and a secret weapon to use when the big guns aren't quite up to snuff.

The Celtics would've been toast in Game 5 on Monday night without Bass. Instead, he was responsible for a decisive third-quarter run that keyed the Celtics' 101-85 win over Philadelphia and put them one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. 

Pretty good for a team that looked dead when it headed into the locker room at halftime down 50-47. As Celtics head coach Doc Rivers told SI.com's Ian Thomsen: 

"

We weren't right in the first half, you could just feel it. You could see all our guys, they were looking at each other—it was like the Celtic spirit wasn't there. I talked about it a couple times in the timeouts, and I told our coaches, "We've got to get through this half and see if we can gather it back." 

"

Bass registered 18 points in the third quarter and finished with 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting and a critical 9-for-10 mark from the charity stripe. On a night when no one seemed to be hitting anything from beyond the arc and Kevin Garnett couldn't find his jumper in the first half, his impact was utterly crucial. 

Sixers coach Doug Collins admitted as much after the game. He told Boston.com's Gary Dzen:  

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We were making a really conscious effort to keep Paul Pierce down. And [Bass] did a good job stringing us out and making some plays along that baseline. They were just quicker to the basket, Brandon was. He didn't depend solely on his jump shot. Too many easy baskets. Too many dunks. 

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The Celtics didn't need Bass just solely to lead them to victory in Game 5. They desperately needed to rebound from a devastating loss in Game 4, when they coughed up an 18-point lead in the second half and were utterly dominated in the final two minutes of a game they once had complete control of.

In Game 5, they turned the tables on the Sixers. They turned up the heat in the second half and left the Sixers flummoxed and unable to find an answer.

Throughout much of this season, the knock on the Celtics has been that when their stars aren't playing well, they have no one else who can step up to the plate. Bass—who averaged just 11.8 points in the first four games of this series—changed that. He gave the Celtics someone who could score with abandon and someone who couldn't be tamed by a Sixers squad that looked 100 percent on point in the first half.

In the past, the Celtics had to rely on Pierce, Garnett, Rajon Rondo or Ray Allen to bring that elusive Celtics spirit. Now, they appear to have discovered a new source of magic.

Finally.

In Game 4 against the Sixers, the Celtics didn't look like a complete team. They looked far from it. Now, after Game 5, they look like they found the missing piece that just might carry them to the conference finals on Wednesday night.