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Game Overview

Miami’s dream of winning this season’s NBA title turned into a nightmare this past Tuesday night as it was unable to capitalize as a 7.5-point favorite against a team it had beaten six previous times at home in the playoffs. The stunning 94-90 loss now puts the Heat in a 2-3 hole in this series and on the brink of elimination in Thursday night’s Game 6.

On paper, Lebron James and Dwyane Wade lit things up with a combined 57 points, 19 rebounds, and five assists, but in what is starting to be an all too familiar pattern, they could not close things out in a game they so desperately needed to win. Even the return of the third member of the Big Three, Chris Bosh, who missed the previous nine games with a strained abdomen, could not spark this team.

There may be some grey hairs showing up on Boston’s Big Four, but they still know how to dial things up when they need to the most. Led by Kevin Garnett’s 26 points and 11 rebounds, the Celtics were able to keep this game close until carving-out a five-point lead at the end of the third quarter. Paul Pierce hit a huge three-pointer with less than a minute to play to restore Boston’s lead to four, which proved to be the difference in the final score. Rajon Rondo had a terrible night shooting the ball, but compensated with 13 assists and Ray Allen had one of his better nights in this series with 13 points and seven rebounds.

The main point of difference in Tuesday night’s game and this series in general has been the Celtics’ ability to adapt and change in order to win games. They kept Miami completely off-balance in Game 5 by constantly switching from zone to man-to-man on defense and have used their veteran skills to bounce-back from an early 0-2 hole, which most people never expected them to climb out of. Boston is 4-1 against the spread in this series and have been underdogs in four of the five games. The big question heading into Thursday night’s contest is does this team have enough gas left in the tank to avoid a return trip to South Beach?

Prediction

Boston has all the momentum in the world on its side, but look for Bosh to play a much bigger role in Game 6 to give Miami a true Big Three presence for the first time in this series. This one also remains painfully close right down to the final buzzer, but stick with Heat to come-out on top with the big win on the road. Miami 97 Boston 94