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The Boston Celtics pulled off an NBA-season high 26-point stunning comeback as their 40-10 run in the second half buried the Heat, yet clinched the 3 seed for Miami. The Celtics won 98-88 and will see the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.
BOSTON - The Celtics went back to the locker room after a Jae Crowder layup cut the Heat's halftime lead to 24. Crowder immediately responded out of the half with a three.
When Joe Johnson answered back with one of his own, it looked like the Celtics were in for a long, submissive end to their regular season.
Johnson would score the Heat's next basket, eight minutes later. It ended the Celtics 20-0 run, but couldn't stop the incoming tide. The Celtics run peaked at 40-10 before the Heat woke up and battled to the end 98-88 Boston victory.
The Celtics outscored the Heat 25-5 in the third quarter, which was the second time this season in the NBA that a team beat their opponent by at least 20 points in a quarter while holding them to 5 points or less.
"Oh wow. Second time in the NBA? That's impressive. That's impressive," Crowder told CLNS Radio upon the news.
On the night that the team gathered legends like Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Kevin McHale and more to honor the '66, '76 and '86, Stevens couldn't believe the team's effort in the first half.
"We were all embarrassed by the start," Stevens said. "We respect them more than anyone could."
So when Stevens brought the team back into the locker room, they had a frank conversation about how the next half, and really the next month would look.
"I didn't say anything otherworldly," he said. "We just sat there and talked in this tenor and said who do you want to be. There's guys in this building that hung banners.
"Who do you want to be? How do you want to look at yourselves? This was a collective thing. It had nothing to do with me. This had to do with who these guys have been all season. We got away from it on Monday and a little bit today."
The Celtics played came into the locker room fuming. With tensions exploding, Stevens' calm presence set the team back on track.
"Brad came in cool, calm and collected, took a seat in the middle of the locker room and just explained to us a little scenario he had gone through," Crowder said. "He said this time, we need to make a choice: Come together or we won't. I think it definitely showed in the second half."
"Brad sat down in the chair and he talked real quiet," Isaiah Thomas said. "You could tell he was upset, but he was basically like, ‘Figure it out. You guys are playing real selfish, not just offensively, but the defensive scheme is real selfish.'
"Everybody is hugging their guy and we need to play as one and get ourselves together and get ourselves out of whatever funk we’re in basically, and we did that," Thomas continued. "We kept looking at each other telling ourselves we’re gonna win this game, we’re gonna make a comeback and..READ FULL REPORT
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