Garnett comes up big as Celtics stun Heat in Game 5
Boston got a huge performance from Kevin Garnett in capping off a nail-biting win over Miami last night. The Celtics are now up, three games to two, in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals series.
Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett dunks the ball in the third quarter of play against the Miami Heat during Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Finals NBA basketball playoffs in Miami, Florida June 5.
Andrew Innerarity/REUTERS
Boston
Asked what drove him after last night’s 94-90 victory over the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics’ power forward Kevin Garnett responded simply, “The competition.”
Garnett tallied 26 clutch points along with 11 rebounds and added two critical free-throws in the final seconds to ice the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena.
Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Brandon Bass added a combined total of 42 in rounding out a 75-point effort by the Celtics’ starting five to help Boston go up three games to two in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Final series.
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The long-awaited return of the Heat’s Chris Bosh, who’d been sidelined since the first game of the quarterfinal series against Indiana, turned out to be anticlimactic as teammates LeBron James (30 points) and Dwyane Wade (27 points) were the only Miami players to reach double figures.
However, Bosh, who played only 14 minutes, had nine points and seven rebounds in his supporting role. Should he continue to improve, he promises to be an important factor when the setting shifts back to Boston Garden for Game 6 on Thursday.
Hitting only two of ten shots from the field in the first half, the Celtics’ Pierce hit four of his last nine shots, including a mammoth three-pointer over James with 52 seconds remaining in the game. That would prove to be the decisive score.
