Eventually, some team is going to break the streak.

In the history of the NBA, when teams take a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven playoff series, the likelihood of having a shot at winning the series is about as improbable as correctly choosing all six numbers in the lottery. It’s a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning.

The 2023 Boston Celtics looked at those odds and said, “So, you’re saying there’s a chance.”

Boston won the equivalent of nailing five of the six numbers in the Mega Millions jackpot and came within 48 minutes of pulling off a playoff comeback for the ages. The Celtics became the first NBA team since 2003 to dig out of an 0-3 hole and force a Game 7. It wasn’t just any series. It was the Eastern Conference finals.

However, like the previous 150 teams that tried to break the cycle, Boston came up short as it got destroyed by the Miami Heat 103-84 in Game 7 at TD Garden Arena.

It was a roller-coaster ride for the Celtics. In a matter of seven days, they went from being massive underachievers to a team on the brink of returning to the NBA Finals only to have it snatched away in one swoop after a shockingly poor performance in front of their loyal fans.

“We failed. I failed. We let the whole city down,” Celtics All-NBA forward Jaylen Brown said during his postgame media availability.

When the Heat took a 3-0 series lead in the conference finals, basketball fans and media pundits were tossing all sorts of narratives around the Celtics and none of them were good.
Talking heads were destroying first-year Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla for being too green and not meeting the moment. Brown’s name was being tossed around in trade scenarios, and the old ghosts that haunted superstar forward Jayson Tatum during last year’s NBA Finals seem to have popped up again.

Seven days later, Mazzulla’s job was no longer in danger. Brown could be in line for a lucrative contract extension and Tatum rediscovered his MVP form.

Once the Celtics decided to step on the gas, it became a series. It shouldn’t come as a surprise the Celtics beat the Heat in seven games. The Celtics finished with the second-best record in the regular season and were one of the betting favorites to reach the NBA Finals. The big surprise was how Boston found itself down 3-0 to an eighth-seeded Miami squad that barely made it out of the play-in tournament.

It’s unfortunate that the Miami Heat, a proud franchise with championship pedigree, found itself on the edge of a historic collapse. A loss to the Celtics are being up 3-0 in the series would have been a permanent stain on the franchise. It would have been a stain on Erik Spoelstra’s impressive coaching résumé, and it would have been a huge stain on the résumés of Miami two superstars — Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

The Heat wouldn’t even be in the conference finals without Butler and Adebayo. They are the heart and soul of a Miami squad that entered the postseason as massive underdogs. The Heat earned the eighth and final spot in the East playoffs by beating the Chicago Bulls in the play-in tournament. The Heat then pulled off an improbable upset in the first round after knocking off the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games. That upset now feels like an eternity.

Butler and Adebayo faded on the back end of the Boston series, as both looked fatigued.

Butler was in prime Playoff Jimmy form in the first two games of the series, scoring 35 and 27 points and playing lockdown defense on Tatum and Brown. But since then, Butler has struggled to find his shooting stroke. He scored 16 points in Miami’s Game 3 win at home, and things got progressively worse as the series extended. He was 9-for-21 from the field in a Game 4 loss. He took only 10 shots and finished with 14 points in a Game 5 loss. He was 5-for-21 in a Game 6 loss.

Adebayo also got off to great start in the first two games in Boston, taking full advantage of single coverage and doing plenty of damage in the paint (42 points and 25 rebounds). But since then, he has gone ice cold from field (13, 10, 16, 11 points) and hasn’t been as dominant on the glass. In Game 6, Bam was 4-for-16 from the field and couldn’t secure the pivotal rebound that led to Derrick White’s game-winning tip-in as time expired for a stunning 104-103 win.

The shooting struggles for Bam and Butler spilled over into Game 7, but both summoned enough strength and energy to impact the game on both ends and lead the Heat to a win. Miami became just the sixth team in 28 tries to win at the Garden in a Game 7. It was pure heart and determination, which embodies the Heat culture.

There were three key reasons why Miami knocked off Boston and advanced to the franchise’s seventh NBA Finals: Spoeltra’s coaching maneuvers, Heat role players stepping up, and Tatum injuring his left ankle in Game 7.

Spoelstra made all the proper adjustments throughout the series and thoroughly outcoached the rookie Mazzulla. Each time Mazzulla made a move, Spo had a counter. Mazzulla — who at 34 is the NBA’s youngest coach — and his staff couldn’t solve the Heat’s puzzling zone defense. Instead of attack the seams of the zone, Boston settled for contested 3-point shots. Over their final two games of the series, the Celtics shot a combined 16-for-77 from 3, including an abysmal 9-for-42 in Game 7.

Mazzulla’s big adjustment in the series was inserting White into the starting lineup to give the Celtics another shooter and ball handler. Spo countered that move by dropping 34-year-old Kevin Love out of the rotation and sliding super-sub Caleb Martin into the starting lineup. Spo wasn’t only beating Mazzulla with X’s and O’s, but he also was winning the motivational game. Moments after the Heat’s crushing defeat in Game 6, Spoelstra went on the podium and declared: “We wish we could tip this thing off right now. Right now! We want to tip this thing off and let’s play another 48 minutes. But we’ll wait another 48 hours and do this thing in Boston.”

Miami certainly did its thing in Boston in Game 7, and it was the Heat role players who got it started. Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, and Duncan Robinson played outstanding basketball in Game 7, but Martin absolutely played out of his mind. Martin, who came within one vote of winning the conference finals MVP trophy, was sensational in Game 7, scoring 26 points in 45 minutes and making 11 of his 16 shots from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range.

“If you’re a real competitor, it’s in your soul, and that’s what Caleb is. He’s a competitor,” Spoelstra said about Martin, who averaged 19.3 points while shooting 60% from the field and 49% from 3-point range in the conference finals. Martin has never topped 9.6 points per game prior to this postseason and is a career 36% 3-point shooter.

The final big nail on the Boston coffin was Tatum’s ankle injury. He twisted his left ankle 26 seconds into Game 7 and was never the same. He injured it on the first play of the game when he collided with Vincent near the basket and landed awkwardly on Vincent’s foot. Tatum tried to play through the sprain, but his mobility was compromised and the limp got progressively worse as the game wore on. Tatum finished with 14 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the field, easily his worst game of the series and possibly the worst game of his young playoff career.

“It swelled up and it was just frustrating that I was kind of like a shell of myself,” said Tatum, who had a noticeable limp as he addressed the media. “It was tough to move. Just frustrating. Especially it happening on the first play.”

Tatum had averaged a series-high 27.2 points through the first six games.

Overcoming a 3-0 deficit in the postseason is extremely rare in major professional team sports. It has been done four times in the NHL (1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, and 2014 Los Angeles Kings), and it’s only been done once in MLB (2004 Boston Red Sox).

The NBA remains the only major sports league not to experience it, but it’s getting close.

Paul George has been one of the breakout star of the 2013 NBA playoffs. (GETTY IMAGES)

You know you’ve arrived as a legitimate superstar in the NBA when LeBron James gives you a dap in the heat of battle.

Paul George followed his 27-point performance in Game 1 with an even better all-around effort in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against defending champion Miami. His loudest play came with under 10 seconds left in the third quarter when the Indiana Pacers’ super swingman took the ball at the top of the circle, drove left past LeBron, and posterized Chris “Birdman” Andersen at the rim with a monster slam …. and one!

Not to be outdone by a visiting player in his own building, James came right back with a 3-pointer before the third-quarter buzzer sounded right in George’s face. Moments later, LeBron turned to George and gave him some love by slapping his hand. Not many guys can go head-to-head with the four-time NBA MVP and gain the upperhand.

“He’s really good. He’s gonna be a great one,” LeBron said of the Pacers’ 23-year-old All-Star. “His maturity and his game has definitely risen because of the opportunity [Indiana coach] Frank Vogel has given him. His teammates have a lot of confidence in him and he has confidence in himself.

“I love competition and I’m gonna be up for the challenge and try to be there for my team as well.”

The 2013 NBA playoffs has turned into a coming-out-party of sorts for George, who in the previous round gave Knicks star Carmelo Anthony fits with his stifling defense. Melo is probably still seeing No. 24 in his sleep for the way George got in his jersey during the East semifinals.

“I just can’t believe how much that kid keeps growing, and growing, and growing,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said of George, who was named Most Improved Player of the Year.

“He’s a third-year player, his third year in the NBA, and going against the best player in the world in LeBron,” Vogel said. “He’s guarding him the entire night and carrying an offensive scoring, and just making confidence-building plays on the offensive end.

“He makes the extra pass, always, finishes at the rim, and he has given us a huge, huge lift.”

George and Roy Hibbert were huge in the Pacers’ 97-93 win over the Heat in Game 2. Hibbert had a game-high 29 points, while George had 22 points on 9-for-16 from the field and six assists in 38 minutes.

But George has done much more than just score in the first two games of the series. He has played point guard when George Hill and D.J. Augustin struggle with ball pressure, and he has taken on the monster task of defending LeBron for the majority of the game.

When TNT’s David Aldridge asked LeBron what’s the next step is for George to become an elite player, James said: “I know the answer to that but I’m not gonna say it right now while I’m competing against the guy. He might use it during our matchup right now. I’ll answer that after the series.”

LeBron James dropped 45 points on the Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LeBron James made sure there wasn’t going to be another fourth-quarter meltdown on his part. He flexed his muscles and put the Miami Heat on his broad shoulders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and put on a performance for the ages.

James took apart the vaunted Boston Celtics defense for 45 points Thursday night, making a mind-boggling 19-for-26 from the field. You couldn’t come up with those type of numbers at a party bingo. He had the entire repertoire working: short jumpers, long jumpers, fadeaways, dribble drives, follow-up dunks, off-balance bank shots, and one-hand floaters in the paint. He also grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out five assists.

The last time — actually, the only time — those numbers appeared in the box score of a NBA playoff game was in 1964 when Wilt Chamberlain posted 50-15-6. Any time you bring up Wilt into the discussion you know you did something really special, and LeBron was absolutely special at TD Garden Arena Thursday night.

”He was absolutely fearless, and it was contagious,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ”The way he approached the last 48 hours, and not only LeBron, but everybody else. Nobody likes getting dirt thrown on your face before you’re even dead. He showed great resolve.”

James’ on-court brilliance allowed the Heat to stave off elimination and send the series to a Game 7 in Miami, a winner-take-all grudge match with a spot in the NBA Finals at stake. For the Heat to knock out the Celtics James will need another “fearless” performance.

”I hope now you guys can stop talking about LeBron and he doesn’t play in big games,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. ”He was pretty good tonight. So we can put that to bed and go play Game 7.”

All summer long James was the butt of all jokes for his fourth-quarter failures in the 2011 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. He spent the entire offseason absorbing low blows from writers, bloggers, TV analysts, and his peers. Even though James shrugs off all the criticism publicly, you know he was chomping at the bit to prove everyone wrong. Even though Game 6 in the East finals is not the NBA Finals and the Heat still has some work to do Saturday night against a very game Boston bunch, it was a huge step toward the rehabilitation of his shattered image.

”He played amazing. He was locked in from the beginning of the game like I’ve never seen him before,” said James’ teammate and good friend Dwyane Wade, who had 17 points in Miami’s 98-79 win in Game 6.

“The shots that he was making was just unbelievable,” Wade continued. “He really put on an MVP performance. Not just scoring the ball, rebounding the ball, defensively, he did it all. It was great to see him come out and lead this team the way he did.

“We just gave him the ball and got out of the way.”

LeBron was trending worldwide on Twitter and Facebook and everyone, including NFL Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders, had something to say about the three-time NBA MVP. Sanders tweeted: “If anybody doubted who is the NBA MVP is LeBron is showing us why. Start appreciating the skill set and stop hating.”

James called the game a “gut check” for the Heat after squandering home-court advantage with the loss in Game 5. James took it upon himself to pull the Heat together and send a powerful message to the Celtics.

“I just try to lead my team the best way I could. Whatever I needed to do on the floor I just to be there for them tonight,” James told ESPN’s Doris Burke. “I just do what I’ve been taught, which is play at a high level and have fun with it and at the end of the day I won’t regret anything. If I played hard and gave it my all I won’t regret anything.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Miami Heat star forward LeBron James (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LeBron James was on fire Thursday night at Boston’s TD Garden. He set the tone for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals with a 30-point performance in the first half and finished with 45 — the second-best output of his playoff career.

James shot 73 percent from the field, making 19 of his 26 shots from the field, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called it a “fearless” performance. The Celtics couldn’t stop LeBron and the only thing that cooled him off was the classless Celtics fan who showered the Heat star and three-time NBA MVP with a beverage as he walked through the tunnel heading toward the locker room.

“I think what fuels him is this moment, and the moment will define you,” Spoelstra said of James, who also had 15 rebounds and five assists. “We’ve been through a lot the last two years. I think we’ve all learned how to compartmentalize and quiet all the noise and just focus on the matter at end.”

James was focused even after the game as he paused momentarily after feeling the water on his back, but he kept on going and wasn’t fazed at all. As for that fan who poured beer on LeBron, he (or she) should be banned from any NBA game. Watch the despicable act:

Boston Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen may be injured, but his confidence hasn't wavered. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

There’s a commercial running on ESPN and NBA TV during the playoffs showing Ray Allen launching countless jumpers. He takes shot, after shot, after shot but the elbow stays the same. The message: unbroken habits lead to broken records.

That motto is the very reason why Allen is considered the best 3-point shooter in NBA history. His form is immaculate and his confidence never wavered. And now you can add resilient and tough-minded to his resume.

After a pitiful performance in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals in which he scored just six points and was 1-for-4 from behind the arc and missed four of his seven free throw attempts, the Ray Allen of old has resurfaced and the Celtics have erased an 0-2 deficit in this series and are now two games away from reaching the NBA Finals.

“With him it’s just balance. When you have a bad foot, ankle or anything your balance is off and you could see that in Ray. The ball is going left a lot. He’s one of the greatest shooters of all time. Ray is gonna try to figure it out, we’re gonna try to figure it out,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of his shooting guard, who is nursing a sore right ankle. It’s an injury that forced him to miss 17 of 22 games in one stretch this season.

Prior to Game 2 of the conference finals, Allen made just 13 of his 43 field goals and 6-for-28 from 3-point range. Both are far below his standards. He’s a career 45% shooter from 3-point range and nearly 90% from the free throw line.

“It’s real simple — health,” said former Orlando Magic sharp-shooter Dennis Scott, who now works as an analyst for NBA TV. “We know Ray is not 100 percent. You look at his career you know he’ll knock down wide open shots, contested shots. But you don’t see the spring, you don’t see the bounce, you don’t see that rhythm we’re used to seeing Ray Allen has.”

Brent Barry says Allen’s injury is not only affecting his shot but it is impacting parts of his game. “He went 3-for-7 from the free throw line [against Miami in Game 1]. He hasn’t missed four three throws in a game since 2006. He’s gotta get it going, otherwise Doc is gonna have to go elsewhere and do other things.

“But Ray is going to fight through it. He’ll be there early and often, hopefully he gets going.”

Allen has gotten it going again, scoring 13 points (including a huge 3-pointer) in Game 2, 10 in Game 3 and 16 in Game 4. The Celtics were able to win two of the last three games in the series because Allen’s shot has significantly improved and it has opened up the floor for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo. Allen was 4-for-11 from behind the arc in 46 minutes Sunday in Boston, a game the Celtics badly needed to win to put a little heat on Miami and guarantee at least a Game 6 in Boston.

Celtics guard Rajon Rondo's 44 points wasn't enough to defeat the Heat in Game 2 of the East finals. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Detroit Pistons founded the “Jordan Rules” in the late 1980s and early ’90s, while former Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson came up with the “Hack-a-Shaq” more than a decade ago. Now, the Miami Heat are employing the “Rondo Rule” in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals.

On a night when Rajon Rondo carved his name in NBA history, the Boston Celtics head back home two games away from being sent fishing.  Rondo put on a performances for the ages: 44 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists in 53 minutes. But in the end, the Heat won in overtime, 115-111.

As impressive as Rondo’s game was on Wednesday night it is by design. The Heat are banking on the fact that Rondo can’t beat them by himself. He almost did! But at the end of the day the Heat are up 2-0 in their best-of-seven series are in great position to advance to the NBA Finals for the third time in the last seven years.

Miami’s defensive game plan is simple: Make Rondo shoot the ball. Call it the “Rondo Rule.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who had high praise for the Celtics guard prior to the start of the series, wants his players to eliminate Boston’s ball movement, and one way to curb that is by making Rondo into a scorer. It’s a bit a gamble on Spoelstra’s part because there is the danger of Rondo going off for a career-high 44 points — which he did in Game 2 — but so far the scheme has minimized the impact of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.

“We tried almost everything with him,” Spoelstra said of Rondo, who scored all 12 of Boston’s points in the overtime period, including back-to-back 3-pointers that made the Heat sweat out the final minute.

” The conventional wisdom of (Rondo’s) gotta beat you with the score, with the jump shot, by not getting all the other guys going. They only had 15 assists, and you wouldn’t think he’d have that kind of monster game,” Spoelstra said.

What Rondo did in Game 2 was mind-boggling given his history of not being able to hit that open jumper when teams sink under the screen. But Rivers said Rondo made the Heat pay time and time again, and he plans to encourage his point guard to keep attacking.

“They were going under (the screens) and I thought what Rondo did was he was going to the elbow and he just took the shots,” Rivers said. “He has to keep doing that, but we have to get more guys involved as well.”

Rondo nearly pulled out the win on his own, but he knows a victory would have been sweeter. “It’s all irrelevant now because we lost,” said Rondo, who showed remarkable stamina by playing the whole game.

“What it speaks to is his competitiveness. He’s a competitor, he’s a basketball player,” Spoelstra said. “Whatever that team needs he’s going to do. Somehow we were able to withstand his incredible game.”

Going into the series, all the Heat talked about was how they must contain Rondo because, as much as the Celtics still rely on the Big Three, the ball is almost in Rondo’s hands almost 90% of the time and the offense clicks when he’s heavily engaged and distributing the ball.

Rivers can’t fault his point guard for taking the majority of the shots, as long as he makes them of course. But Rivers knows he can’t win this series if Rondo is passive so he has to ride the hot hand for as long as he can and hope that the Heat will change their defense and start trapping Rondo, giving more opportunities for KG, Pierce, and Allen.

“[Rondo] was absolutely phenomenal. Put his whole team at times on his shoulders,” Rivers said. “It’s tough to have him play that way and not win the game, honestly. He did basically everything right. We had a lot of opportunities to win the game.

“He was playing at a pretty good pace and we just rode him.”

Rajon Rondo averages 13 points and nearly 10 assists per game against the Miami Heat. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

For the Miami Heat, the key to winning their Eastern Conference finals best-of-seven series against the Boston Celtics is simple: Stop Rajon Rondo.

“Boston creates so many challenges, you can’t key on just one guy. But I think the biggest challenge is Rondo,” Heat forward LeBron James said of Rondo, who had a major hand in two of Boston’s three victories over the Heat during the regular season.

In Boston’s 91-72 blowout win on April 1, Rondo messed around and got a triple-double: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 14 assists. He also shot the ball well in that game, making seven of 13 shots including 1-for-2 from 3-point range. In a 115-107 Boston win at Miami on April 10, Rondo scored 18 points and dished out 15 assists.

And don’t think one second that Miami wasn’t watching Game 7 of the Celtics-Sixers series when Rondo took over in the fourth quarter, knocking down two long jumpers late and scoring nine straight points to advance the Celtics into the conference finals and set up a rematch with the Heat.

“You can make a case that 60 percent of his impact is out of miscellaneous random plays that you can’t necessarily scheme for,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Rondo. “We have to throw the full respect that he deserves, and that’s multiple players multiple schemes. He’s too smart not to get that kind of respect.”

Rondo is averaging 13 points and almost 10 assists against the Heat. This season he led the league in assists with an 11.7 average — the best of his career — and notched his ninth career postseason triple-double.

Count Philadelphia coach Doug Collins in the Rondo fan club. After his team lost Game 7 in Boston, Collins said the Celtics are more than just the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.

”I don’t look at them as the Big Three. I look at them as the Championship Four,” the 76ers coach said. ”Because if you’re going to leave Rondo out, you’re making a huge mistake.”

The Heat will not make that mistake in the conference finals.

LeBron James' defense was a big reason why the Miami Heat eliminated Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. (GETTY IMAGES)

Watching Derrick Rose go right at LeBron James in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 2011 Eastern Conference was pure basketball magic. It’s not often when you see the reigning league MVP and the two-time league MVP going head-to-head for much of the fourth quarters in the Heat-Bulls series.

Rose unleashed his best moves and best shots. If Rose literally had a bag of tricks, he probably emptied it out in this series. However, each time Rose tried to catch fire, James was there to snuff it out. In the end, it was LeBron’s size, power and quickness that uncovered the secret to stopping the mercurial Rose.

As good as James was on offense in Game 5 – and he was pretty darn good with a game-high 28 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter – he was even better on the defensive end, locking up Rose with a smothering man-to-man defense that would have made NFL shutdown corner Darrelle Revis proud.

“You kill the head of the snake,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said of the key to stopping the Chicago Bulls, obviously referring to Rose.

Easy for Wade to say because he was mostly a spectator when it came time to defending Rose, but his good friend and first-team All-NBA defender LeBron James took on the challenge of shutting down the 22-year-old Bulls star.

Even though Rose scored 117 points (25-point average) in the series, which the Heat ended in five grueling games, it took him 120 field goal attempts to reach that mark. It meant that nothing came easy for Rose, especially the last two games in which he was a combined 17-for-56 from the field and 3-for-17 from 3-point range.

In Game 5 Rose was 9-for-29 from the field, and James was a big reason why. James kept Rose out of the paint, forced him to shoot over his 6-foot-8, 265-pound frame, and smothered his passes. Every time Rose tried to create offense either for himself or for his teammates, James was there to take away all his options.

After the Bulls took a 77-65 lead with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, James tightened his hold on Rose and allowed the Heat to mount a comeback. Wade and James took turns in dropping baskets on the Bulls, and at the one-minute mark the game was tied at 79. Wade and James combined for 24 points in the fourth quarter.

The Bulls still had an opportunity to pull out the win, but Rose made a critical turnover thanks to great defense, again, by James as he tipped Rose’s pass when the Bulls guard tried to swing the ball to the right. James came up with the loose ball and seconds later he dropped a cold-blooded jumper over Ronnie Brewer near the top of the arc for an 81-79 Heat lead.

On the Bulls’ final possession, down by three and 16 seconds left, Rose tried to create space on the left side of the court to set up a possible game-tying 3-pointer, but he ran into Udonis Haslem and then James finished off his defensive gem with a clean block as time expired on the Bulls’ season. Game. Set. Match. Checkmate.

Derrick Rose may be the most valuable player in the NBA, but LeBron James clearly remains the best athlete in the NBA and it’s not even close.

Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh is quietly silencing his critics in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. (US PRESSWIRE)

Prior to the start of the 2011 Eastern Conference finals, Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer hinted that the Miami Heat have only two real superstars on the team, an obvious slap-in-the-face directed at Heat forward Chris Bosh.

Bosh claims he wasn’t upset with the comment, but you bet he read Boozer’s remark and wasn’t very pleased about it. Some players say they’re not affected by bulletin-board material, but every athlete in the world uses every little diss, no matter how big or small, as motivation.

Three games into the Heat-Bulls series, Bosh is playing like a man looking to put a muzzle on someone (hello Mr. Boozer!). He scored 30 points in Game on 12-of-18 shooting, and in a pivotal Game in Miami the supposed third wheel in the Big Three cog poured in 34 points on 13-of-18 shooting to push the Heat to a 2-1 series edge.

“I just want to be aggressive and have some kind of imprint in this series,” Bosh told TNT’s Craig Sager. “I had an aggressive Game 1. Game 2 was so-so but we still won. Here on our home floor I just wanted to be aggressive and it turned out to be a good game.”

Bosh has been so efficient in the series that even even the outspoken Joakim Noah has nothing but good things to say about the much-maligned Heat star. “He played excellent,” Noah said.

LeBron James said he changed his game plan in Game 3 to accommodate Bosh, allowing him to get more looks at the basket. “If I needed to get it going offensively I could, but the great thing about it is CB had it going. When we have someone on our team going, we continue to give the ball to him. The team feeds off his energy offensively and he brought it home for us.”

Bosh is without a doubt winning his one-on-one battle with Boozer, who has been real quiet in this series. Boozer did post nice numbers in Game 3 (26 points and 17 rebounds), but he only had 14 and 9 and 7 and 8 the previous two games, not exactly the type of numbers the Bulls were hoping from their high-priced free agent acquisition during the summer.

If the Heat are going to advance to the NBA Finals, the Heat know they need Bosh to play like an All-Star. Statistics show the Heat almost unbeatable when Bosh plays well. And so far the former Toronto Raptor is making Boozer eat his words.

Throughout the 2010 NBA playoffs, Rivers made it a point after almost every Celtics practice to remind Robinson to stay focused, be ready and told him to “stay engaged.” “At some point, you’re going to win a game for us,” Rivers said to the little-used point guard. “I can’t tell you when you’re gonna play, I can’t tell you if you’re gonna play.”

The Celtics coach proved to be prophetic as Robinson got his opportunity in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and delivered a superlative game off the bench that catapulted the Celtics to a series-clinching 96-84 victory and a trip to the NBA Finals.

Robinson – the 5-foot-9 three-time slam dunk champion who was acquired by the Celtics from the New York Knicks during the trade deadline – led a Boston second unit in the second quarter that pushed the Boston lead from 11 to 21 points. He scored 13 points in nine minutes and made two huge 3-point shots that not only got the crowd excited but inspired his teammates.

Nate Robinson provides a big lift for the Celtics in the second quarter of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference finals. He scored 13 points, including two crushing 3-point shots. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“They actually made their big run with Rondo sitting on the bench,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “That’s not a knock on Rajon Rondo. I’m not sitting up here saying they’re a better team without Rajon Rondo. But tonight they were.

“Nate Robinson was great. He’s a real talented guy,” Van Gundy added. “He scored a lot of points in New York, and what he did tonight was probably what they had in mind when they made the deal. I guess, for whatever reason, he hadn’t played much for them. But in an absolutely huge game he stepped up and played great.”

Paul Pierce, who led the Celtics with 31 points and had 13 rebounds, credited Robinson for sticking to the script and staying sharp despite the limited action.

“He kinda fell off the rotation, but my hats off to him because usually young players mentally fall out of it when they don’t play, just go through the motions in practice and really not into it because they’re worried about their time. That’s normal for a young player,” Pierce said of Robinson, who turns 26 this month. He had averaged just five minutes of court time in this year’s playoffs.

“But he kept his poise. He went to practice and got his work in, shot the ball, and did what he had to do to stay ready. Tonight his number was called and that just shows his true professionalism,” Pierce continued. “The game could have went either way at that point. We were only up by six or eight [points] and Rondo gets hurt, and he comes in and was a huge sparkplug, and really pushed the game for us.”

Rivers noted that he had already decided to give Robinson more playing time for Game 6 after he played well during the Game 5 loss in Orlando, and it became absolutely necessary when Rondo hurt his hip during the first quarter. “Even though we had played awful, [Robinson] came in and had bought into our defensive system and he was able to run a couple of sets in our system,” Rivers said.

Robinson carried over his solid Game 5 performance with an ever better one in Game 6. He was aggressive on offense and, more importantly, applied heavy pressure on Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, who struggled to a 5-for-14 evening and had just 11 points.

Orlando fought valiantly in this series and Rivers credited Van Gundy for keeping his team together even when most people had already counted them out when they fell behind 0-3.

“We got away from our game when we got behind. Unfortunately, it happens to every team. When we missed shots early, we didn’t stick with our game,” said Van Gundy, who pointed out that the first quarter was the key to the whole series.

“There’s this thing that people try to perpetuate that the NBA is fourth-quarter league, and you don’t even need to watch the first three quarters. That’s for people who don’t study at all and don’t follow NBA basketball. Go back through the years, two thirds or three quarters of the games are won by the team that wins the first quarter. It’s a first-quarter league. You gotta be ready at the start.”

The Magic fell behind 30-19 in the first quarter and played uphill the rest of the game.