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"This series is probably as unconventional a series asI"ve ever been a part of, and as any I"veseen,"" said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. Yeah, well welcome to the strange world of the 2011-12 Celtics, whoback at the All-Star break would have been thrilled just to makethe playoffs, and who now stand two victories from what would bethe most unexpected trip to the Finals in the team"s 66-yearhistory. To get there they must find a way to win one game inMiami, but right now that"s a story for another day. Whattook place at TD Garden Sunday night needs a bit of reflection. We might as well begin at the end, with the Celtics depending onthree subs to help them stop Miami from tying or winning the gameafter a Rajon Rondo free throw had given them a 93-91 lead with21.4 seconds to go in OT. One of those three subs was MarquisDaniels, who was given the formidable task of guarding Dwyane Wade,who was going to be the Designated Shooter, for sure, mainlybecause LeBron James was watching from the bench at the oppositeend of the floor after fouling out for the first time in fourseasons. What Daniels did was, well, save the game, no more, no less. Wadetried to make one move, but Daniels wouldn"t yield, and with14 seconds left Daniels gave a foul. When play resumed, Wade wentback to work, but he couldn"t really advance the ball, andwith the clock winding down he really only had one recourse. In that type of situation perhaps the only man in the world as goodor better at luring a defender into a foul is Paul Pierce, and he,too, was on the bench with six personals. "I told [Daniels] not to go for the pump fake,""said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, "and he was able to jump outof the way to avoid the foul. I thought on that defensivepossession he denied Wade as long as he could."" Of course, by jumping out of the way, Daniels had given Wade a veryclear look at the basket. He went into a patented step-back move,fired, and watched the ball bounce off the rim. "Red wasn"t going to let that go in; you knowthat,"" said Rivers. "Not in the Boston Garden. Ithought it was good, honestly, when it left his hand."" Would the Celtics have deserved much sympathy had that shot gonein? That"s a good question. Had they lost, they definitelywould have had some "splainin" to do. They broke out of the gate to accumulate such leads as 6-0, 18-4,and 21-6. When Miami launched little counter-attacks, they hadsufficient responses. And with 1:31 remaining in the second quartera Ray Allen 3-pointer gave them a 61-43 lead. Life was good. Do the math. That"s 61 points in the first 22:29. In themodern NBA, that"s some fancy scoring. The rest of the game was a taffy pull. At no point did the Celticsre-construct their offense, as they scored 12 points in the thirdquarter, 16 in the fourth, and a rousing 4 in the overtime, theonly basket a fast-break hesitation floater by Rondo with 2:33remaining. That put them ahead, 92-91, and represented the winningbasket. Really. The Heat weren"t exactly rippling the cords, either. Theironly basket of the OT was a left-to-right driving dunk by UdonisHaslem, whose 12 points and 17 rebounds would have earned him somenice press in Miami had the Heat won the game. Rivers attempted to analyze this Tale of Two Halves affair. "I thought we came out in the third quarter and tried to givethem the knockout punch,"" he said. "Ourexecution in the first half was flawless. But we got completelyaway from it in the second half, we really did."" Say this for the Celtics. When Miami took its first lead at 76-74 -the first time the Heat had been ahead since the 28-26 juncture ofGame 2"s second period - the Celtics managed to get a grip onthemselves, battling back to take leads of 81-78, 87-84, and,finally, 89-86. But in an eerie replay of last year"s Game 4,when Miami had likewise come in with a 2-1 series lead, James hit agame-tying 3 with 37.5 seconds left in regulation, just as he haddone a year ago. Last year Wade and Chris Bosh joined him in putting the Celtics torest. Miami won in OT and then went home for a fifth-game closeout. But there"s something in the air with this year"sCeltics, and they"re assured of at least one more game inBoston. Something crazy"s going to happen. Count on it. Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE. Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com.He can be reached at . The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Samsung Tab Leather Cover , iPhone 4S Protective Cases, and more. For more , please visit iPhone 4 Silicone Cases today!
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