Live Blogging — NBA Playoffs Saturday – Celtics Heat

Closing thoughts: I overestimated Wade’s ability to completely lead this team to victory. He finished with 26.. One problem. Quentin Richardson showed up with 15, but no one else scored more than 8. the crazy ending with the mini-fight breaking out makes me hopeful this series turns into something with some energy and passion/urgency..

FINAL: CELTICS 85 , HEAT 76

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Tony Allen had 16, 15 and 14 points respectively.. Boston was able to hit the same amount of shots on eight fewer attempts…

Wade hit the free throw… Then misses the top of the key jumper as he falls away..

Garnett was issued two technicals.. one for the first confrontation, then another one for the elbow.. he was ejected..

Big fight just broke out on the Miami bench.. all kinds of shoving going on.. started with Garnett and Richardson.. chaos.. any technicals.. Garnett definitely threw an elbow of sorts?

Surprise, Surprise.. Paul Pierce is hurt.. looks like his right shoulder..

Ok, wade hit another shot, and now Heat just done 5.. Perhaps I called the coroner too quick on this one.. 81-75 Boston up with 39.3 left..

Wade hit a nice finger roll, but too little too late.

Rondo then hit a shot for the 10-point lead, 81-71.. DONE

Rajon Rondo might have just sealed the win with his offensive rebound with 1:56 left in this one.. he fell down and had to call time out.. Put a fork in this one folks..

Old man Hubie just mentioned Wade hasn’t had a fieldgoal in 16 minutes.. Heat just can’t win like that.. Impossible… And Boston has its largest lead of the game 79-71.. and they have it with 2:55 left in the fourth quarter..

Miami made the Celtics hold ball to long and 24-second violation occurred… Does Miami have any Magic left? Oh, wait that’s ORlando. Wrong bad pun..

Miami is cold, missing 18 of its last 24 shots… and Garnett just dunked on Haslem.. Ewwwwww!! Boston up 78-71..

Allen just got a layup inside and the Celtics are up seven, but Beasley hit an offbalance one handed runner to trim the lead to five, 76-71. 5:35 left in the game.

The dynamic of the game seems to have changed, and the Heat look lost and confused and out of sorts on defense, while Boston is hitting its groove.. Those damn veterans

Wade to Haslem, and they blew the alleyoop on a wide open fastbreak when they could have just made a layup… man… it would have cut the lead to 3, but instead Boston is still up 73-68 with 7:15 left in fourth..

Boston just took the lead.. .. a layup then a foul where they hit a free throw. 71-68 Boston. 9:17 left in game.. I could be eating crow on this one..

Game tied.. 68-68 on a pair of Rondo free throws….

END OF THIRD: MIAMI 66, Boston 64.

Celtics coming back strong…. 63-60 Heat lead 2:32 left in 3rd.. Chalmers hit a 3 to answer and push the Heat lead back to 6..

The Celtics did respond with a nice four straight points, and the lead is 61-53 with 5:01 left in the third.

Miami 61, Boston 49… 17-8 scoring edge for the Heat so far in the third quarter… Quentin RIchardson being a nice sidekick to Dwyane Wade with 13 points (Wade has 20)..

Miami off to a quick 51-43 lead on a 7-2 run.. 9:36 left in first half..

HALFTIME: MIAMI 44 , BOSTON 41

Wade leads everyone with 11 points.. Tony Allen still leads Boston with 8.. the same point total he had to end the first.. None of its “superstars” have really stepped up yet, which is basically what I expected for this series.. I didn’t see the hunger all year. Let’s see if the second half proves me right or if the savvy veteran bunch turns it on for the Celtics before they wake up and realize they just lost a home playoff game… Rebounding edge goes to Heat 23-15 (O’Neal has 7 boards), and the offensive rebound edge is 8-2 for the Heat…

Nice finish by the Celtics and Rajon Rondo’s buzzer beater to cut the lead to three after being down by 8 heading into halftime…

Michael Beasley followed Jermaine O’Neal’s airball with a two-handed dunk, almost as if O’Neal threw the alley-oop to Beasley… O’Neal hit a jumpshot though, and the Heat are up 35-32 with 6:40 left in the first half…

Game tied 31-31, 8:20 left in the first half…

END OF FIRST QUARTER: MIAMI 29, BOSTON 28

Dwyane Wade leads all scorers with 9 points, while Tony Allen, of all people, leads Boston with 8 points

Miami up 29-26… looking good … Tony Allen hit a buzzer beat at the end of the first to cut the lead to 1..

I predicted the Heat to win this series, and I haven’t seen anything to convince me otherwise yet…

Tony Allen was the recipient of a nice pass from Rondo.. easy dunk and the game is tied 19-19… 3:15 left in first.. Ray Allen cleaning up a bloody nose still… Celtics don’t seem to be missing him too much…

4:35 left in the first quarter and the game is tied at 15-15… Early on Wade leading everyone with 5 points and a 10-2 run that Garnett stopped with a short shot.

Tipoff about to happen: