The dream of Banner 18 is slipping away for Boston.
The Heat get fantastic performances from all three of their star players. LeBron James finishes with 35 points and 14 rebounds, Dwyane Wade adds 28 and nine, and Chris Bosh kicks in 20 and 11 more.
This Miami juggernaut just can't be overcome right now. These three guys are too powerful.
For what it's worth, Paul Pierce finishes with 27 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal. It's not enough, as the C's crumble down the stretch.
The C's will have a chance to save their season on Wednesday night. They're headed back to Miami for an obvious must-win in Game 5.
Overtime, 1:24, Heat 92-88: The Celtics get two free throws from Kevin Garnett followed by a crucial stop. They have the ball, down only four. Still very much alive.
Doc Rivers calls for a timeout. It's a big one. Whatever happens next may well decide the Celtics' season.
Overtime, 2:00, Heat 92-86: Dwyane Wade just drove a dagger through the Celtics' hearts. He knocks down the step-back, fade-away long two over Delonte West's outstretched arms, and the Heat are on the verge of finishing this thing.
The Celtics have gone from "a little desperate" to "very, very desperate." Two minutes to save the season.
Overtime, 2:25, Heat 90-86: The Celtics are still down four. they've yanked Rajon Rondo in crunch time, replacing him with Jeff Green. They're starting to look desperate.
Delonte West just committed another turnover. They Celtics can't afford that right now.
Overtime, 3:41, Heat 90-86: The Heat open the overtime period with two quick buckets, one from LeBron James and one from Chris Bosh. They've got the upper hand again.
Are the Celtics too old and too slow to win a 53-minute playoff game? That may be a concern. They're 1-4 in overtime playoff games in the Big Three era.
End of fourth quarter, 86-86: Unfortunate ending to regulation for the Celtics. Looks like a broken play — Paul Pierce was screaming for someone to come with a pick in the final six seconds or so. Never came. Pierce found himself isolated against LeBron James, forced to knock down a jumper in his face. Didn't work.
We're going to overtime.
This is the first really good, competitive down to the wire game we've had in this series. We were overdue.
This should be a thrilling five extra minutes.
Fourth quarter, 19.5 seconds, 86-86: Huge bucket for Paul Pierce to tie it up. Huge steal for Ray Allen to put the C's back in the driver's seat. What an incredible turn of events.
Moments ago, the Celtics were on their heels; now, they have a chance to win this thing.
We're in for a heck of a finish.
Fourth quarter, 48.0 seconds, Heat 86-84: LeBron James comes up with the two biggest buckets of the night for Miami — a 3 in the waning seconds of the shot clock to tie the game 84-84, and then two possessions later, an inside hoop to out the Heat on top.
LeBron is on the verge of leading the Heat to a 3-1 series lead.
The Celtics need to respond right now.
Fourth quarter, 2:59, 81-81: And just like that, the Celtics are right back in the ballgame.
Paul Pierce finds Delonte West wide open in the corner, and West connects on a 3 to tie the ballgame and send the TD Garden into hysterics.
Erik Spoelstra needs a timeout now. His Heat team has been thrown back on its heels again.
Fourth quarter, 4:54, Heat 79-78: That was a big recovery of a loose ball by Chris Bosh, and a big defensive rebound from Dwyane Wade back on the other end.
The Heat have the lead and the ball. For the moment, they've got the upper hand.
Both teams have been going small, with Delonte West on the floor for Boston in the fourth quarter instead of Jermaine O'Neal. They need good, solid tough D from this undersized unit, and they need to turn their stops into running, attacking offense.
Fourth quarter, 6:08, Heat 77-76: The Celtics' defense has been outstanding, especially in transition against LeBron. But the C's just can't score to save their lives.
The scoreless stretch has lasted nearly three minutes now for Boston. This is looking reminiscent of that ugly Game 2 on Miami, where the C's had a tie game at 80-80 but let it slip away.
Boston needs to step up right now and get the offense going again.
Fourth quarter, 9:39, Celtics 75-71: Who needs a left arm? Rajon Rondo charges into the lane and scores with his right. He pushes the Celtics' lead back to four with under 10 minutes left to play.
Rondo's now got 10 points and five assists. Not spectacular, but pretty solid considering everything he's been through in the last 48 hours.
End of third quarter, Celtics 73-69: This game was tied with three minutes to play in the third, but the Celtics have used a well-timed 8-0 run to create some separation again. They lead by four with 12 minutes to play.
Paul Pierce has 21 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal to lead the Celtics.
LeBron James has 22, eight, two and two to lead the Heat.
Both teams are deep and dangerous, but right now they're leaning on their superstar leading scorers to run the show.
Which one will hold on down the stretch?
Third quarter, 2:52, 65-65: The Celtics turn a Heat turnover into a fast-break opportunity for Glen Davis, who has a clear path to the basket. Evidently, Mike Bibby is left with no choice but to plow Big Baby over.
Doc Rivers is up in arms. He is very emphatically asking for a flagrant 1 call against Bibby.
He's got a good case for it. Bibby made no attempt to touch the ball. He was going right for the throat.
Third quarter, 4:57, Heat 63-59: A Celtic turnover just led to an easy two points for Dwyane Wade in transition. The Heat now have their biggest lead of the ballgame — four.
The Celtics have eight turnovers so far in this game. Not terrible, but there's still room for improvement. The Heat are cold-blooded killers when you give them opportunities for fast breaks.
Third quarter, 7:45, Celtics 57-55: Rondo just found Ray Allen wide open for a wing 3, and Ray bricked it. That's his first 3 attempt of the game, and he's now 2-of-6 from the field overall.
The Celtics should know by now — they win when they get Ray Allen involved. It's like the Heat with Chris Bosh. When your supporting scorer gets in on the act, you're always tough to beat.
Third quarter, 9:45, Celtics 55-53: Forget about Shaq — it's Jermaine O'Neal that's giving the Celtics the intimidating presence they needed down low. J.O. just sent Dwyane Wade a loud "no layups" message with a hard foul under the basket.
Wade hits one of two free throws.
This is still a one-possession ballgame. Don't anyone get comfortable.
Halftime, Celtics 53-50: LeBron James is a man on a mission, but the Celtics have held him off so far, emerging with a three-point lead despite 20 points, five rebounds and two steals from the King.
The Celtics get 17 from Pierce, plus eight points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal from Jermaine O'Neal. Their offense has been fantastically efficient in this first half, scoring 53 points on 31 shot attempts.
Can the C's hold off Miami's charge in the second half? We shall see.
Second quarter, 2:51, Heat 46-45: LeBron James just gave the Heat their first lead of the game in a very, very emphatic manner. That was a dunk contest-caliber throwdown.
LeBron has 20 points now in the first half. He refuses to be denied.
In Game 3, the Celtics got quality minutes defending LeBron from Pierce, Jeff Green and Kevin Garnett. Tonight, not so much. The effort has been inconsistent against King James.
Second quarter, 5:17, Celtics 43-40: The Celtics have led this one from wire to wire without Rajon Rondo giving his best effort. The point guard has six points, but he's only registered one assist and one rebound. He still looks a little one-armed out there.
Credit Delonte West with stepping up and playing fantastically off the bench, as well as Kevin Garnett and Jermaine O'Neal for keeping the ball movement going. KG has one assist; J.O. has two.
Second quarter, 5:50, Celtics 43-39: LeBron James is giving his best effort now, no question. Can the Celtics withstand it?
They led by 11 points a few minutes ago, and now it's been cut to four. LeBron is a man possessed — he's got 16 points on nine shots. He's about to go to the line, to boot.
The Celtics have yet to win a game with both LeBron and Dwyane Wade firing on all cylinders. Tonight, they might have to.
Second quarter, 8:49, Celtics 40-31: Now Glen Davis joins the party, corralling a defensive rebound and putting it back up for two. The Celtics have pushed their lead from seven points to nine with their starters mostly resting.
If the C's can sustain this remarkable efficiency all night, then forget about it. This series is as good as tied 2-2.
Second quarter, 9:35, Celtics 38-31: The Celtics' second unit has it going right now. The two most impressive plays of the second quarter to date: a steal taken coast to coast for a bucket by Delonte West, and a corner 3 from Jeff Green initiated by great team ball movement.
One of the Celtics' fatal flaws in this postseason has been their inability to find bench scoring. That problem seems to be withering away now.
End of first quarter, Celtics 31-28: Does defense win championships? Maybe. But offense gets you off to a pretty solid start in Game 4 of the second round.
The Celtics shoot 10-of-15 from the field in the first quarter, including 4-of-6 from Paul Pierce, who leads all scorers so far tonight with 14 points. Pierce continues to wield the upper hand on LeBron James.
LeBron rallies to end the first quarter with 13 points, three rebounds and a steal. But his Heat still trail the host Celtics as we head to the second quarter.
First quarter, 2:21, Celtics 23-20: That's impressive — Shaquille O'Neal enters the game and manages to pick up two personal fouls in one minute.
Back to the bench for the big fella, I'm guessing. We might see a big dose of Big Baby tonight if Shaq can't steer clear of foul trouble.
In other news, Eddie House has checked into the game for Miami, seeing his first minutes of the series against the Celtics, his former team.
First quarter, 5:27, Celtics 16-11: It's still early, but it looks like so far Paul Pierce is owning his individual matchup with LeBron James once again. Pierce has six points and two rebounds; LeBron has three points, shooting 1-for-3.
LeBron looks a little tentative offensively. Rather than attack the basket, he's overpassing and squandering opportunities to make things happen.
Come to think of it, he looks an awful lot like the LeBron who choked away a second-round series against the Celtics last year.
First quarter, 8:55, Celtics 11-6: Encouraging development for the Celtics early — despite the Heat starting Joel Anthony for a little extra post defense, the C's have established some offense down low in the opening minutes. Jermaine O'Neal has already scored twice.
Credit Kevin Garnett with helping to enable the Celtics' offense down low. He's been setting good screens, and he just assisted the second bucket for J.O. He's keeping the ball moving. The Celtics are playing good unselfish ball so far.
First quarter, 11:35, Celtics 2-0: Kevin Garnett gets into the paint and takes in a one-armed entry pass from Rajon Rondo on the Celtics' first possession. He draws a foul, gets to the line and hits two shots.
Solid start for the C's, except it looks like KG got poked in the eye a little bit. But hey — if Rondo can play with a dislocated elbow, KG's got no reason to complain.
6:45 p.m.: Doc Rivers is going the safe route tonight — he's got Rondo starting and Delonte West active as well, but he'll also keep Carlos Arroyo active just in case something comes up.
Knowing Rondo, though, he's not about to step aside in a playoff game. He wants to get out there and help the C's even this series at 2-2.
Game time is coming right up. Find a comfortable chair and set up shop for the night.
5:15 p.m.: Welcome to the TD Garden, where Rajon Rondo is in the building, and it appears he's going to play. Dislocated elbow? What dislocated elbow?
Rondo's not like you or me. He's a warrior. He's a trooper. He can fight through anything.
Looks like tonight, he'll prove it.
10:50 a.m.: It's fair to say that historically, the Miami Heat have struggled a little bit at the TD Garden.
They lost twice here in the regular season. They lost three in Boston in their first-round playoff series in 2009-10, as well as one during that regular season as well. All told, regular season and playoff combined, Saturday night's loss in Game 3 was the Heat's 11th consecutive loss in Boston. The last time they won was April 6, 2007, when their center was named Shaquille O'Neal.
The Heat are probably getting pretty sick of losing here. You can't blame them.
"This is a championship team," said Dwyane Wade. "They play with that championship DNA that they have. We can learn a lot from that effort that they put forward. We understand that it wasn't going to be easy, especially winning here. But we'll be back Monday, and we'll try to do it again."
Wade's right — the Heat get another shot at breaking the Garden curse in Game 4, and if they do it, they'll have pushed the Celtics to the brink of elimination, three games to one. They had a slip-up on the Garden floor Saturday night, being wiped out in the second half and losing 97-81, but all will be forgotten with a win Monday night.
As for the Celtics, they're banged up but determined to keep rolling Monday, tying the series at two. Rajon Rondo, Delonte West and the aforementioned O'Neal have all battled injuries, but all three are expected to play with the C's season on the line.
One of two things happens Monday night — either the Heat break a curse, or the Celtics even a series. We'll find out at 7 p.m.
