Celtics down Heat - Is Big Three Era on the brink?

 MIAMI - Here’s a new possibility: Boston is just the better team. It’s tougher. It’s deeper. Rajon Rondo [stats] is unstoppable. Kevin Garnett doesn’t age. Paul Pierce [stats] will keep throwing down shots on the Heat until his Social Security card arrives.

If that’s a difficult idea for Heat fans to wrap their mind around today, here’s an infinitely more painful one: Was Tuesday night the last time you’ll see the Big Three in AmericanAirlines Arena?
Is this era over before it even was crowned?

Boston beat the Heat, 94-90, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday night. That gives them a 3-2 lead in this series. And, all of a sudden, it looks like so much more than survival of a series at stake for the Heat.

Do the Big Three survive if this team doesn’t survive Game 6 in Boston on Thursday? Does someone, say Chris Bosh, get shipped off for a couple of more supportive parts?

Because if the Heat can’t get by an old and oddly rejuvenated Boston team to reach the Finals, can they be trusted as composed to win them?

"It’s like a boxer, going back to his corner," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "All we have to do is focus on winning Game 6. And, bang, that momentum shifts again."

Boston’s old legs just don’t seem to be tiring. That’s the most surprising part of the Celtics [team stats]’ surprise. They’re coming off two seven-game series. They’d played two overtime games in the previous four before Tuesday.

But it was the oldest Celtics that again made the biggest plays. Pierce, all of 34, hit a three-point shot with 52.9 seconds left. That gave Boston a four-point lead.

"That’s what players like Paul do," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "He’s a big shot maker."
Allen, a month from 37, made two foul shots to keep the cushion. Then it was Garnett at the foul line cementing the game, the edge in the series and, perhaps, the last home night for The Big Three. If so, the fans went home in stunned silence the way this series has turned.

It wasn’t like the Heat lost this game early like it did the previous few. They started strong for the first time. LeBron James had 14 points and six rebounds in just over a quarter (he finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds).

But all night long, the Celtics were a cold the Heat couldn’t shake. The Heat led by eight points in the first quarter. But Boston cut it to two at half.

The Heat went up nine in the third quarter. Boston went on a 15-1 run to lead by the end of the quarter.

On one fourth-quarter play, Dwyane Wade blocked a dunk by Brandon Bass. But Rajon Rondo got both a rebound and an assist by tipping the ball to Mickael Pietrus for a 3-point shot.
"I thought that was the play of the game," Boston coach Doc Rivers said.

That’s the kind of smart play the Heat again was up against . Surprising? Unusual? This series keeps adding odd layers of that. Maybe no team in history has started a lineup in a conference finals with no player taller than 6-foot-8. The Heat did in Game 5.

But finally the 6-11 Chris Bosh was available again. Bosh came into the game in the first quarter under the most trying of circumstances. It isn’t just that he returned from an abdominal strain. That was minor compared to his masseuse having a heart attack in his home Monday and died.

Given all that, Bosh provided some early hope. He played five minutes in the first quarter and had five points. That’s more than any Heat center had in a game this series. By half, he had five offensive rebounds - or three more than any Heat center against Boston.

Finally, the Big Three were re-united for parts of a game.

Still, it wasn’t enough again. For the third straight time, the Celtics [team stats] outplayed the Heat. And now this series goes to Boston for Game 6 with perhaps more than a series on the line.
Maybe it’s the Big Three era.
Source: Boston Herald