Celtics Vs. Heat: Complete Eastern Conference Finals Series Coverage

Another surprising name on the list is Sleepy Floyd. Every other player to accomplish this feat more than once since 1986 is already or will eventually be in the Hall of Fame. Floyd was a great scorer, but he’s just not on the same level as the others on the list. Yet Floyd managed to accomplish the feat in consecutive postseasons, playing for two different teams. James now joins Floyd as only the second player in the past 26 seasons to have a 40/.667 playoff game with more than one team.

There are other ways to define a great performance in a playoff game, of course. James himself had perhaps his most memorable playoff performance in 2007 against the Pistons when he scored 48, including Cleveland’s final 24 points in regulation and throughout two overtimes; but he “only” shot 18-33 in that game -- that’s more than twice as many misses as he had in Game 6 against Boston.

He had 30 points in the first half and 45 for the game, but you knew that already. Every time LeBron James does anything, we know about it instantly, a second later everyone’s talking about what it means, and the next day everyone’s arguing about it. This has been LeBron’s reality for the better part of a decade.

All Game 6 does is explain why.

When the Miami Heat got together over two fateful days in July 2010 -- first with Chris Bosh announcing his intentions to join Dwyane Wade in South Beach, then with LeBron James revealing his plans in a primetime special, no one thought the arrangement would last only two seasons. There were minor fears that it might last only one because a new labor deal in 2011 would force the break-up of top-heavy salary cap sheets, but those fears turned out to be unfounded or at least exaggerated.

No one thought that there were structural basketball issues that would so limit the Heat that we’d legitimately be discussing the need to break up the party two years in. This isn’t to say folks lacked skepticism of their ability to win not one, not two championships: there were plenty of Heat doubters. But there always also seemed to be some resignation that despite their evil excesses, the Heat were going to be darn near unstoppable.

But Rondo scored only seven points on 3-15 shooting and committed five turnovers. The Associated Press recap of the game mentioned Rondo’s Game 5 performance exactly once -- a fourth quarter turnover where he inexplicably passed the ball to a teammate in the backcourt.

Make no mistake. Rondo had a huge impact on Game 5 when it mattered most, and without him the Celtics don’t take control of this Eastern Conference Finals series.

Game 6 of this series returns to Boston’s TD Garden on Thursday night. Can Pierce, KG and the rest of the Celtics banish LeBron and Wade from the postseason?

For more on the Heat, head over to Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay. For more on the Celtics, check out CelticsBlog and SB Nation Boston.

For more on the Heat, head over to Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay. For more on the Celtics, check out CelticsBlog and SB Nation Boston.

Officiating has been a point of contention throughout the series, but Game 4 was where the officials had their biggest impact on the series thus far. No one could accuse the officials of favoring one team over another, but the pure volume of borderline fouls that were called significantly altered the game, ultimately leading to James and Pierce exiting the game early in overtime. Hardcore fans of both teams and neutrals alike will probably be hoping for the officials to swallow their whistles more often in Game 5.

Game Date/Time: Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. ET

This is probably something that doesn’t bother all the people out there who have normal lives and balanced interests and barely any time to check Twitter and watch sports talk on TV, but for anyone who lives with the 24/7 sports news cycle every day, the LeBron Clutch Debate is the diseased-deformed beast that just won’t die.

Exactly the ammo all the analysts needed!

Were it not for SEO, I wouldn’t be writing about Tiger Woods, but... Remember when Tiger won the Arnold Palmer Invitational shortly before The Masters? With all the “Tiger’s back!” talk? You remember that one. Well, did he leave before he got to Augusta? I ask because I keep hearing, again, that he’s back, and I don’t quite know how he’d do that twice. Great job at The Memorial. Way to go, tying Jack Nicklaus for second all-time in tournament wins. But long ago, we agreed that majors were what mattered. So let’s talk again after the U.S. Open in two weeks, K?

Would someone just come out and say what’s really going on with Bountygate? This goes for the NFL, which seems to have provided Yahoo!‘s Jason Cole with information of a bounty ledger...except the information didn’t connect with what actually happened and had to be corrected. This also goes for Sean Pamphilon, whose suddenly become the most famous documentary filmmaker in sports history. I don’t necessarily begrudge Pamphilon’s willingness to share what he knows about the Sants, especially since there is evidence to back his claims. What can’t be missed, however, is his heavy-handed, moralistic tone when discussing all these things. That started with Mike Silver’s first story about the now-infamous Gregg Williams speech, continued the next day with the reaffirmation of his dedication to “truth” on the matter, and went right through to an impassioned plea Friday to Drew Brees to “[j]ust be truthful.” Maybe Pamphilon is just a concerned observer who can’t sit idly by. Or, maybe he’s a concerned observer who can’t sit idly by and is working on a documentary called “The United States of Football,” which, while examining football as a cultural phenomenon, will give particular attention to the long-term physical damage the game inflicts. Sorry, but no one involved -- the league, Pamphilon, or any player -- deserves the benefit of the doubt. Time for everyone to put show all their cards, because nothing else is trustworthy at this point.

LeBron, who hadn’t fouled out of any game since 2008, picked up his fifth foul midway through the fourth on a regrettable double foul. (All double fouls are regrettable, both personal and technical. It’s a cop-out 95 percent of the time. This particular double foul probably should have just gone against LeBron, not he and Kevin Garnett.) Moments earlier, LeBron’s fourth came on a charge call.

In the final six minutes of regulation, the refs called four offensive fouls (including half of that double foul). These are among the most contentious calls in basketball ... and the referees handed out as many in crunch time as you’re likely to see over the course of most entire games.

While LeBron wasn’t as efficient as he has been in this series, he still had 29 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Wade recovered from a slow start in the first half to put up 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

Dwyane Wade is and has been one of the NBA’s best players, but his proficiency from three-point range has always been a bit less than one might expect from an All-NBA shooting guard. Fortunately, as he told reporters yesterday, he’s not going to shoot many one-legged threes anymore.

Wade first got to the topic of one-legged threes while talking about being doubled, as he was, repeatedly, in Game 3.

The Miami Heat looked as bad as they have all postseason in a Game 3 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday. In particular, Kevin Garnett was a destroyer and Miami’s small lineups were ineffective. Given that Chris Bosh’s initial prognosis was that he could return sometime in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Game 3 result has naturally led to questions about whether the power forward would hit the court in time to help get Miami a win in Boston and a commanding 3-1.

That remains unclear, but the Heat’s other two stars aren’t counting on it. Here’s what LeBron James said in the post-game on Friday.

Now, the Celtics must respond in Friday’s Game 3 in order to save their season. What kind of changes can they make in their game-plan to get it done? SB Nation’s Ben Golliver discussed that, as well as Game 2, in this video.

As Golliver notes in the video, the Heat “know they took a very, very good punch from Boston” to survive Game 2. It’d be easy for them to think that was the best punch the Celtics can provide in this series. We’ll see if that ends up being the case.

“You’re not gonna see an NBA player ever play much better than what you’ve seen tonight.” That was Jeff Van Gundy Wednesday night, somewhere near the end of Rajon Rondo’s obnoxiously brilliant 44-point, 10-assist, eight-rebound effort.

As the game went on, he just kept getting better and the whole thing got more unbelievable. Rondo played all 53 minutes of Game 2 and single-handedly carried the Celtics offense for stretches at a time. Like Van Gundy said, it’s hard to imagine a more impressive night.

It’s probably safe to say that Allen will be in the lineup for Wednesday’s Game 2.

The Celtics’ guard has been a shell of himself during the playoffs, as he is playing through bone spurs in his right ankle. He is averaging just 9.6 points a game while shooting 39 percent from the field, 28 percent from three-point range and 60 percent from the free-throw line.

Wednesday’s Game 2 will tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

For all news and information regarding the Miami Heat, please visit Peninsula is Mightier or check out SB Nation Tampa Bay. For updates and perspective on the Boston Celtics, head on over to CelticsBlog or stop by SB Nation Boston. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

Allen hasn’t been himself throughout the playoffs. He is averaging just 9.6 points per game this postseason, and his 39 percent shooting mark would be the lowest playoff average of his career if it holds. Some time to rest could do him some good. As it now stands, Allen isn’t doing much on the floor for the Celtics.

For more on the Celtics, check out SB Nation Boston and CelticsBlog. For more on the Heat, head over to SB Nation Tampa Bay and Peninsula Is Mightier.

James was told about Rondo’s comments and responded thusly:

The Celtics may be hoping to take the Heat to church in Game 2 and beyond, but they didn’t really look capable of muscling around the Miami team at any point in Game 1.