Celtics Send Clear Message to Heat with Game 3 Win

The Boston Celtics knew they had to win Game 3 against the Miami Heat on Friday night. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, and the Celtics didn't want to try to be the first to do so.

Well, the message that Boston sent to Miami was loud and clear: We're still here. The image of Kevin Garnett doing pushups on his knuckles in the second quarter after taking a hard foul encapsulated that.

The C's dominated the Heat on both ends of the floor in Game 3, winning 101-91 and cutting Miami's lead in the series to 2-1.

Don't let the final score mislead you. Boston thoroughly dominated the Heat at the TD Garden, leading by as much as 24 at one point. A furious fourth quarter rally by Miami trimmed the lead to eight late, bringing a moment of extreme angst to the crowd, but the Celtics never broke, as key plays from the likes of Garnett and Rajon Rondo down the stretch kept the Heat at bay.

This was just an outstanding performance by the C's tonight, perhaps their best of the entire postseason thus far given the opponent. Outside of LeBron James, who had 34 points in this one, no one on the Heat could get into any kind of rhythm, as Boston's suffocating defense clearly had Miami flustered. That was particularly true from the second quarter on as reserves Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels stepped in and gave the Celtics a huge boost, not only applying tremendous defensive pressure but chipping in with some scoring to boot.

One of the main keys to this game for Boston was how well it utilized Garnett. KG only took one face-up jump shot in this game, and that came with under a minute to go in the fourth quarter, as the 36-year-old veteran canned one from the corner. Other than that, Garnett went to work down low, catching lob passes from Rondo and others and abusing whomever was guarding him in the post. Garnett finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, and the Heat had no answer for the big man.

The Celtics also had great balance offensively, with three players (Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rondo) recording over 20 points, not to mention Dooling and Daniels combining for 16 off the bench.

Once again, Rondo was brilliant. Not 44 points brilliant, but brilliant in the sense that he controlled the tempo of the game all the way through and was very efficient, shooting 9-of-16 from the floor en route to 21 points. He also dished out 10 assists, grabbed six rebounds and was simply spectacular in the open court.

All of that said, defense was where the C's won this game. After allowing Miami to shoot 47 free throws in Game 2, Boston buckled down and held the Heat to 20 in Game 3, and Miami only made 10 of those. The Celtics did an incredible job bottling up Dwyane Wade, holding him to 9-of-20 shooting. Also, and hold on to your seat, Wade did not get to the free throw line once all game. That is absolutely amazing and is a testament to how efficient Boston's defense was on Friday night.

So, what does all of this mean for the rest of the series? Well, for one thing, the Celtics are back in this thing. I still think they really needed to win Game 2, because it is going to be extremely tough to take four out of five from the Heat, but if they can win Game 4 on Sunday and even up this series, everything obviously changes. You have to like Boston's chances to do so, as well, as it clearly did some things defensively that threw Miami off in Game 3, and Erik Spoelstra is certainly going to have to make some adjustments if he wants his team to take a 3-1 lead back to South Beach.

The question is, can the C's duplicate in Game 4 what they did in Game 3? Playing back-to-back good games has not exactly been Boston's modus operandi in this postseason, but against a team as good as Miami, it is going to have to become so in this series.

I really think the Celtics can do it this time around. Their defense looked much quicker on Friday night than it has been all series, as when they double-teamed Wade and James on pick-and-rolls, they did a great job of rotating out on shooters and not giving the Heat many clean looks from three, something that proved to be the death of Boston in Game 2. That is certainly something they can repeat in Game 4, and it makes it that much more difficult for Miami to generate offense.

Most importantly, this is another one of those games that the C's absolutely must win, and they are always superb in those situations. Yes, they won convincingly in Game 3, but their backs will still be against the wall in Game 4.

Fortunately, Boston was able to throw a counterpunch on Friday night, one that definitely caught the Heat right on the chin. Now the C's have a chance to land an even bigger blow in Game 4, one that can completely turn the tide of the series and back Miami into a corner.

Something tells me we will see another great effort out of the Celtics on Sunday night. Then maybe we'll see Garnett do some more pushups.