The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 94-90 to take a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. In Winning their third consecutive game, Boston moved to within a win of returning to the NBA finals for the third time in the past five seasons. Kevin Garnett continued his phenomenal postseason by posting another dominant performance and finishing with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Garnett has turned back the clock this postseason, playing as well as he has since joining the Celtics five years ago. Paul Pierce scored 19 points for the Celtics, and despite struggling with his shot all evening, drained a huge 3-pointer over Lebron James with under a minute left in the game to put the Celtics up by 4.The Heat received 30 points from James and 27 from Dwyane Wade, including 14 in the 4th quarter, but the supporting cast did not show up ready to play. Throughout the series Boston has repeatedly had role players like Mickael Pietrus, who had two crucial 3-pointers in the waning minutes of the game, step up and contribute, while Miami has relied on solely Wade and James. Chris Bosh made his return to the Heat's lineup, playing for the first time since game 1 of the Conference Semifinals, and was effective scoring 9 points in only 14 minutes of playing time. He will have to be able to play for longer stretches of game 6 for the Heat to have a chance to extend the series.
Throughout the game the Heat looked lost in their half-court offense, failed to get back on defense to stop the Celtics' fast breaks and struggled to make the correct defensive rotations. Much credit has to be given to Boston head coach Doc Rivers for outcoaching his Miami counterpart Erik Spoelstra, and for electing to confound the Heat by switching between zone and man-to-man defenses in the 4th quarter.
At the All-Star break Boston had a 15-17 record and was considering trading away key components of the team's core. Since then the team has a 35-17 record and is proving that it is not too old to compete for a championship.
