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The Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics continue their storied playoff rivalry as they meet Saturday night (ABC, 8 ET) in Boston for the seventh all-time Game 7 between these franchises.

The Celtics own a 4-2 advantage in the previous six matchups, but the 76ers won the most recent game three decades ago in the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals.

Game 7 Stats To Know
History appears to be on the Celtics’ side as they are 17-4 all-time at home in Game 7s. They did lose their last such game in 2009 against the Orlando Magic, but they have never lost consecutive Game 7s at home. The Celtics are also 20-7 overall in Game 7s, the most such wins and second-best record in NBA history (min. five games).

The 76ers, on the other hand, are just 1-7 all-time on the road in Game 7s and haven’t played one since 1986. The franchise is 6-8 overall in Game 7s; the eight losses are tied for the most in NBA history.

Celtics Keys to the Game
The Celtics have yet to lose back-to-back games this postseason, having won all four contests following a loss. However, the Celts have not fared well trying to close out a series since the "Big 3" was formed entering the 2007-08 season. They are 10-13 in potential series clinchers (1-2 this postseason).

Kevin Garnett’s jump-shooting has kept the Celtics in this series. Garnett has made 26-of-55 (47 percent) jump shots from 15 feet and beyond. The rest of the Celtics have combined to shoot 30 percent from that distance this series.

The absence of Avery Bradley, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on Friday, is significant for the Celtics, as it takes away their best five-man lineup this postseason.

When Bradley, Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Brandon Bass and Garnett have been on the court together, the Celtics have outscored opponents by 53 points. Their next-best lineup has outscored opponents by only 18 points.

76ers Keys to the Game
Philadelphia is looking to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001 and is trying to become the first No. 8 seed to reach the conference finals since the Knicks in the lockout-shortened 1999 season.

However, they will need to overcome history in order to make it to the next round.

The 76ers have lost each of the last 13 best-of-seven series in which they have trailed 3-2. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest such streak in NBA history.

One of the deciding factors in this series has been the 76ers' ability to establish the pick and roll. In their three wins, they’re averaging 11 points running the pick and roll. In their three losses, they’re averaging eight points on 29 percent shooting.

Offense has been an issue in the playoffs for the 76ers, who are scoring 86.6 points per game, the fewest among remaining teams. The 76ers haven’t scored more than 92 points in their last 10 games, the longest single postseason streak of its kind since the Pistons in 2006 (11 games).

The Philadelphia 76ers staved off elimination with a 82-75 win over the Boston Celtics, sending the Eastern Conference Semifinals to a decisive Game 7 in Boston on Saturday.

This will be the seventh Game 7 between the 76ers and Celtics, and the first in three decades. Boston has won four of the previous six meetings, but the 76ers won the last such game exactly 30 years ago today.

Philadelphia continued its improbable run through the playoffs as the No. 8 seed with its seventh win in 12 games this postseason.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 76ers seven wins are tied for the second-most in a single postseason by an eight-seed since 1983-84 (the 16-team playoff format began in 1983-84).

The win tonight was hardly a surprise for fans in Philadelphia or Boston. The 76ers improved to 5-0 this postseason following a loss and 5-1 in home playoff games.

With the loss, the Celtics drop to 10-13 overall and 2-11 on the road in close-out games since Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo on the team in the 2007-08 season.

Keys to the Game
The 76ers dominated the Celtics around the basket, shooting 63 percent from inside five feet, their best rate so far in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They also held the Celtics to under 40 percent shooting from inside five feet for the first time since Game 2 of the 2009-2010 NBA Finals against the Lakers.

Contributing to the Celtics woes on the interior was Kevin Garnett's reluctance to go inside. All 20 of Garnett’s field goal attempts in Game 6 were from 10 feet and out, with an average distance of 17 feet.

The 20 attempts from 10-plus feet are four more than Garnett’s previous high with the Celtics. Garnett had 126 games with the Celtics prior to Wednesday with 15 or more field goal attempts. In all of those games, Garnett had at least one shot inside of 10 feet.

Looking Ahead to Game 7
Despite the 76ers win on Wednesday night, they still face long odds to win the series:

• In NBA playoff history, teams that have won Game 5 of a best-of-seven series that was tied at 2-2 (like the Celtics did) have gone on to win the series 83 percent of the time.

• The Celtics were the 47th team to win Game 5 of a best-of-seven series that was tied 2-2 by 15-or-more points. Of the previous 46 teams to do that, 44 went on to win the series, according to Elias.

• And Elias also tells us that the 76ers have lost each of the last 13 best-of-seven series they have played in which they have trailed 3-2, which is the longest such streak in NBA history.

The Boston Celtics visit the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night (ESPN, 8 ET) for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Boston leads the series 3-2 after its Game 5 win on Monday, but the 76ers are 4-0 this postseason in games immediately following a loss.

In NBA history, teams that have held a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 85.9 percent of the time (213-35). Teams with 3-2 series leads went 4-0 in the first round this postseason.

Since the new "Big 3" era began in the 2007-08 season, the Celtics are 2-10 in road games with a chance to close out a series. The rest of the NBA is 28-28 in such games.

Key Players
Kevin Garnett has increased his offensive production this postseason. He’s averaging a double-double with 19.3 PPG and 10.5 RPG, up from his regular season numbers of 15.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG. In addition, he’s shooting 52.1 percent from the floor in the playoffs, compared to 50.3 percent in the regular season.

The Celtics have outscored opponents by 136 points in the 403 minutes Garnett has been on the floor this postseason. Boston has been outscored by 85 points in the 130 minutes he’s been off the court.

Andre Iguodala is shooting 52.6 percent (10-for-19) from 3-point range but is shooting only 45.5 percent (10-for-22) from the free throw line in this series.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since the NBA instituted the 3-point shot in 1979-80, only two players have shot for a higher percentage from 3-point range than from the free throw line in a single playoff series (min. 15 attempts in each category). Tony Parker in the first round in 2004 (68.8 3-point pct; 68.2 free throw pct) and Rasheed Wallace in the first round in 2006 (54.2 3-point pct; 43.8 free throw pct).

Stats to Know
Boston has yet to allow 100 points this postseason. The Celtics are one of three teams that haven’t allowed 100 points in a single game this postseason, joining the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.

Since scoring 109 points against the Chicago Bulls in Game 2 of the first round, Philadelphia hasn’t scored more than 92 points in any of the nine games since. That is the longest single postseason streak of scoring fewer than 93 points since the Detroit Pistons (11 games) in 2006.

Kevin Garnett has been rejuvenated in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The future Hall of Famer, now in his 17th season, carried the Boston Celtics to a Game 3 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.

Garnett, who turns 36 years old Saturday, had 27 points, 13 rebounds and four assists in Game 3. He is the third-oldest player in the past 25 seasons with those stats in a playoff game. Only Karl Malone and Charles Barkley did so after turning 36.

Garnett has been the difference for the Celtics in this series. With Garnett on the court, the Celtics are plus-47. With Garnett off the court, they're minus-31.

His effect is felt across the board. The Celtics have outrebounded the Sixers by 15 with Garnett on the court, but they're minus-15 on the boards with Garnett on the bench. The Celtics also are shooting significantly better and have a much better assist-to-turnover ratio with Garnett on the court.

Garnett helps open up the Celtics’ 3-point shooting. When he’s on the court, the Celtics are 14-for-34 (41 percent) on 3-point attempts. With him off the court, they’re just 1-for-13 (8 percent).

It's not just on the offensive end. With Garnett on the court, the Sixers are scoring 37 fewer points per 48 minutes, and shooting 11 percentage points less from the field and 23 percentage points less from 3-point range.

A Tale of Two Cities
In their Game 2 win in Boston, the Sixers led the Celtics 57-49 at the end of three quarters. The teams had already topped that score by halftime Wednesday, with the Celtics leading 60-49. In Game 2, the Celtics didn’t score their 60th point until 8:36 remained in the fourth quarter.

In Game 2, the Celtics scored just 24 points in the second and third quarters combined. On Wednesday night, they made 64 percent of their shots and scored 61 in those two quarters. Garnett scored 19 points in the middle quarters, with Rajon Rondo adding 10 points, 10 assists and no turnovers.

After scoring only 33 points in transition in the first two games of the series, the Celtics scored 28 points in transition in Game 3. They made 10 of 11 shots in transition after shooting less than 50 percent in the two games in Boston.

In Philly's first three home games during the playoffs, the 76ers' defense allowed an average of 78 points while forcing 15 turnovers per game. In Game 3, the 76ers allowed the Celtics to score 107 points with only seven turnovers.

More Than Luck of the Irish
The Celtics had three players with 20-10 games in the win, the first time they did so in a playoff game in 24 years. In Game 6 of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge all had 20-10 games in a win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Rondo recorded 14 assists and turned the ball over only once. It was his third playoff game with at least 14 assists and one or fewer turnovers, the most of any active player. Despite playing at least 25 more postseason games than Rondo, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash have done it only twice each.

Ryan Feldman contributed to this post.

Here's a big question: How many minutes can Kevin Garnett play?

Here's another big question: Can the Celtics get anything done without him?

Through 60 regular-season games, Kevin Garnett played more than 38 minutes one measly time. In eight playoff games, he has already passed that number every time except for in a blowout first win against the Hawks and Game 2's loss to the Sixers.

On Monday night, the Celtics were outscored by 17 points in the 14 minutes that Garnett sat. Coach Doc Rivers rested his key big man in the second and third quarters, which is precisely when Philadelphia grabbed control of the game and established, then fattened, a lead that the Celtics could not overcome despite Garnett playing the entire fourth quarter.

Back in February, Rivers moved Garnett to the center position. At this point in the playoffs, no descriptor could be more accurate. With Pierce and Allen struggling to produce on injured legs and Avery Bradley’s left arm reduced to dangling uselessness, Garnett is the hub of everything the Celtics do offensively and defensively -- he is literally the center of the Celtics' hopes.

Paul Pierce is shooting just 25 percent from the field and is moving terribly when Andre Iguodala, one of the premier wing defenders in the NBA, challenges him. In Game 2, Pierce was neither able to punish Evan Turner on the occasional switch nor use his usual craftiness to work his way to the free throw line (just two attempts) -- a major part of Boston’s closing strategy.

Meanwhile, the Celtics can still rely on Ray Allen to drill spot-up attempts, but bone spurs prevent him from sustaining the offensive action for long, because of the challenges of sprinting through his customary circuit of baseline screens.

Both star wings have injuries that are expected to linger.

And with Rajon Rondo largely contained by the long and hardworking Turner (who is also big enough to deter Pierce when the Celtics force a switch with a 1-3 pick-and-roll), that leaves Garnett.

Like the rest of the NBA, the 76ers haven’t come up with an adequate answer to Garnett’s long-range shooting, and he’s been able to take advantage of the Sixers in the post, where he can create shots for himself and, when doubled, for his teammates. Philadelphia's wing defenders present a tenacious and largely interchangeable thicket. The Celtics' only reliable ways through involve Garnett. Even when he's not the focal point of a pick-and-roll, or a post-up, he's also Boston’s best screener. On his least taxing offensive plays he's still throwing his body around, colliding with 76ers, in an effort to spring his teammates free.

Whatever energy Garnett doesn’t use being Mr. Everything on offense goes into the defensive end, where he’s still a superb paint defender and pick-and-roll buster. When he sits, the Celtics are vulnerable to smart pick-and-roll ball handlers who can finish at the rim. Iguodala, for instance. With Garnett on the bench, the Sixer repeatedly found his frontcourt mates for open jumpers as the Celtics big men struggled to rotate quickly.

The Celtics actually outplayed the 76ers for pretty much the whole of Game 2, except for the stretches when Iguodala was on the court without Garnett. One could argue that Iguodala’s ability to lock up Paul Pierce, push the tempo and exploit imperfect rotations when Garnett was out was the difference in the game.

If the first two games are any blueprint, the Celtics will need Paul Pierce to sort out a plan of attack against Iguodala -- possibly by getting Iguodala in foul trouble -- or Garnett has to be able to match Iguodala’s minutes.

This indirect matchup of two defensive-minded players capable of impacting every facet of the game puts a tremendous burden on the aging Celtic.

Iguodala is an ironman and Garnett’s junior by eight years and nine NBA seasons. But Garnett has shown an iron determination, and will certainly offer every last drop of energy for a trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The question is whether that will be enough.

Rajon Rondo is making it clear how important point guard play is in the NBA playoffs.

Rondo is the first player with at least 20 points and 16 assists with no more than one turnover in a playoff game since Tim Hardaway for the Golden State Warriors in 1991, who had 27 points, 20 assists and one turnover against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Rondo, Hardaway and Magic Johnson are the only players to accomplish this feat in the last 25 years.

In the last 25 seasons, a Boston Celtics player has had at least 16 assists in a playoff game eight times. Rondo has seven of those performances (Larry Bird had the other in 1990).

Rondo consistently gets it done in the playoffs. Among players in NBA history with fewer than three turnovers per game, only John Stockton (10.1) averages more assists per game than Rondo (8.6).

With Rondo on the court in the playoffs, the Celtics are 14 points better per 100 possessions than they are when Rondo is off the court.

Their offense is significantly better with Rondo, scoring 21 more points per 100 possessions. They're shooting 10 percentage points higher from the field and 13 percentage points higher on 3-point attempts, and they're averaging nine more assists with 5.5 fewer turnovers per 48 minutes with Rondo on the court.

A popular definition of a great point guard is one who makes his teammates better. There’s no better example of that in the playoffs than Rondo with Kevin Garnett. When Rondo is on the court in this series, Garnett is averaging eight more points per 48 minutes and shooting 25 percent better from the field.

Garnett, Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass are all scoring more, shooting better and have a better plus-minus when Rondo is on the court.

How important is a reliable point guard in the playoffs? Just ask the Bulls, who lost Derrick Rose to a torn ACL and went from an NBA title favorite to a First Round underdog.

Or how about the New York Knicks, who were outscored by a combined 60 points in their first three games against the Miami Heat before barely staying alive in Game 4?

Certainly, injuries to Jeremy Lin and Iman Shumpert have hurt the Knicks at point guard. No team has fewer assists (12.5) or more turnovers (19.5) per game in the playoffs than the Knicks. Their starting point guard, Baron Davis, who exited Game 4 with a dislocated patella, has 13 assists and 13 turnovers in the series. Every single other playoff team has at least one player with more assists per game in the playoffs than Davis, who leads the Knicks.

Still not sure how important strong point guard play is in the playoffs? Over the last three seasons, point guards with at least 12 assists are 19-6 in playoff games.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Do you trust a man without a conscience, one who operates on a different -- even nonexistent -- moral code?

For basketball purists, that’s a tough one. We subscribe to the high-minded principles of “quality shot selection,” of “taking what the defense gives you,” of “not settling.” These tenets make up the basketball code we romanticize in “Hoosiers” and in the longevity of the San Antonio Spurs.

But Los Angeles Clippers’ swingman Nick Young doesn’t subscribe to this code -- not by a long shot. When Young has the ball in his hands, he doesn't factor his decision-making the way coaches, fans and analysts would.

"I'd say I have no conscience, to a certain extent," Young says. "I feel like I can make any shot. That's something that's been in me since I started playing the game."

Young doesn't deny that he takes a few ill-advised shots a game, but he won't apologize for them. And on Sunday in the Clippers' improbable comeback, he had nothing to be sorry about. He went for 19 points on 11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers in a span of a minute to shave a 12-point deficit to three in a flash.

Most of those shots on Sunday were open looks, but for most of his tenure with the Clippers the degree of difficulty on his shot selection has been astronomical.

"Those shots? I still think I can make them," Young said. "Some people might think, 'He's glad to shoot that shot,' but I practice those shots."

This entire premise can offend certain sensibilities. I ask Young, "Really? You practice taking contested 21-footers inside the arc with two guys on you?"

"I know I can make 'em," Young says.

This certitude can drive an empiricist nuts. An average NBA game has about 94 possessions, and if you have a guy like Young chucking up bad shots on three or four of those possessions, that can kill your efficiency. Look at the point differentials of most NBA teams -- a bucket or two per game is the difference between a top-four seed and a seat at the draft lottery.

Despite these truths, is it possible that Young has a point? Are some of those bad shots loss leaders that ultimately pay off in a game like Sunday night's?

In an effort to try to make sense of whether a lack of conscience can translate to success, I go in search of Gilbert Arenas.

After Arenas dropped 61 points against the Los Angeles Lakers in December 2006, Kobe Bryant famously said of the then-Washington Wizards star, "He doesn't seem to have much of a conscience. I really don't think he does. Some of the shots he took tonight, you miss those, and they're just terrible shots. Awful. You make them and they're unbelievable shots."

Setting aside the irony of the source, Bryant gets to the heart of the matter. Many interpreted his comments as a swipe at Arenas, but it wasn't. Bryant was just delving into the mindset of the unconscionable shooter, who is neither good nor bad -- but just is.

On Monday, Arenas had plenty to offer on the matter:

The best players in any sport in the world have no conscience.

It's like someone who has ADD (attention deficit disorder). They have a creative mind. They can see things that other people can't see. They can do things that other people can't do. But once they take the medicine, it calms them down -- just like a coach who gives a conscience to a guy who doesn't have a conscience.

It's like an assassin. In any movie, he starts off killing everybody, but then he finds the girl who stops him from being an assassin. That's just like players. The reason Steve Nash can make the passes he can make is because nobody has ever told him when he makes a turnover, "Don't make that pass." Same thing with Rondo. It gives them that freedom to expand and create anything he can think of.

I challenge Arenas on the notion that really bad shots are part of the creative process, that a guy somehow can't be both judicious and aggressive, but he rejected the premise that there's anything wrong with taking a 20-footer with a defender in your face and time on the shot clock:

His creativity lets him do that. It's a shot he thinks he can make. Just like Kobe. If you think about the best players in the world, they have no conscience. They try anything. They do anything. Brett Favre -- he threw any pass he thought he could throw. That's his creativity. That's what he's like. He's going to fail and he's also going to win.

But a guy with a conscience won't pull that trigger.

I ask Arenas whether you can be a great player and still have a conscience.

"I don't think so," Arenas says. "Michael Jordan never had a conscience. A.I. didn't have a conscience. Kobe doesn't have a conscience."

I counter that Kevin Garnett has a conscience, that he exercises an uncommon discipline and has still been one of the best players of his time.

Arenas' response?

And that's why he doesn't get the ball in the fourth quarter. That's why they give it to Paul Pierce, because he has no conscience. LeBron has a conscience. He cares what you think about him. But Kevin Durant doesn't have a conscience. D-Wade doesn't have a conscience. But Bosh has a conscience.

You're born with it or you're not. Some people are what I call "killers." Some people have the killer mentality and that's who you want with the ball at the end of the game. You want them taking that shot because they don't care about failing -- even if it's a bad shot.

It's hard to let Arenas off the hook on this point. Does he deny there are bad shots that cost you basketball games?

That's the game of basketball. You can't go around and play like we did yesterday -- like college basketball when you're up 20 with a few minutes left and you're stalling and you do the four corners, and before you know it, you stop being aggressive.

So the Grizzlies developed a conscience at the wrong time in Game 1?

"Yes," Arenas says.

Arenas' theory that conscience is a congenital trait is interesting. In his worldview, a player can't develop -- or rather shed -- his conscience. He's either hard-wired to kill, like Nick Young or, on a larger scale, Kobe Bryant. Or he's not.

Arenas might be half-right, half-wrong:

A lack of conscience might be a necessary ingredient for Arenas' "killers," but those moral vacuums aren't created equally.

On Sunday, we saw the best of Young's nihilism. Without it, the Grizzlies are up 1-0 in this series. But down the road, it's possible a lack of conscience might shoot the Clippers out of a game.

Such is the fickle nature of the code.

---

Rajon Rondo | Avery Bradley | Paul Pierce | Brandon Bass | Kevin Garnett
Minutes Played: 136
Offensive Rating: 108.2 points per 100 possessions
Defensive Rating: 81.0 points per 100 possessions

How it works offensively
In a move that's sparked debate, Doc Rivers assigned Ray Allen to the bench upon the shooting guard's return from injury. The absence of Allen from this unit makes this lineup a real departure from the C's 2008 and 2010 Finals runs, and the offense has a somewhat different look. With Avery Bradley in Allen's place, the Celtics lose a bit of their spacing, but their stretchy frontcourt of Kevin Garnett (now the nominal center) and Brandon Bass helps mitigate that.

Reggie Miller as the possible exception, nobody perfected the half-court sprint in the single-double quite like Allen, but you won't find Bradley running around screens. That feature is now property of the second unit. Yet this group still runs the Celtics' proficient series of rotating pick-and-rolls -- with Paul Pierce working one side of the floor and Rondo the other. Meanwhile, Bradley moves side to side off the ball to keep the help away.

Now in their fifth season together, Pierce and Garnett have become so smooth as a pick-and-roll tandem, like an old couple who finishes each other's sentences. Garnett still sets one of the best picks in the business, although Pierce's accuracy from midrange has fallen off this season, so moving to his left off a Garnett ball screen then shooting is no longer the best option in this sequence. If the defender actually manages to fight through that screen to Pierce, Garnett will get the pass. And if he doesn't have a clean shot off that pass, he'll quickly read the defense and find something else -- often a streaking Rondo or an open Bass along the weakside baseline.

Rondo approaches every possession in which he's the primary initiator as a scorched-earth attack. He's not without offensive liabilities, and his range continues to limit his options at times, but when he finds space to work and passing lanes to exploit, those deficiencies are no longer in play. He feeds Garnett almost flawlessly and knows when it's time to bail on the first option (say a pitch to Garnett) and adopt the second (maybe a kickout to Pierce, who has his feet set).

With his relentless penetration, Rondo is still pressuring defenses -- which often choose to help off Bradley. No matter, because Rondo can thread the needle to either Garnett or Bass, who situate themselves in that Luis Scola territory just above the baseline about 16 feet from the hoop. Garnett presents all kinds of problems. One of the best passing big men in the league, he's a savvy playmaker away from the basket. And defenders who traditionally help off the C's center now do so at their own peril.

The Celtics aren't a running team, but this lineup generates a healthy percentage of its points in transition (almost 1-in-5). When Rondo collects a defensive rebound, look out. Rondo can move coast to coast as well as any point guard in the league, and watch out for those trailers: Garnett (inside the arc), Pierce (outside the arc) and Bass (rim runs)!

What about Bradley? How is he getting his buckets? Not as a first option, as Allen frequently is, but by being crafty and finding space. Bradley made a pretty baseline cut from the left corner in the opening minutes of the second half against Miami recently, meeting Rondo at the hoop for the dish. Two minutes later? Same thing.

The Celtics’ offense during this regime has suffered from high turnover rates and, this season, an inability to get to the line consistently -- but not this group. All in all, this unit isn't the most highfalutin in the NBA, but of the Celtics' 10 most used lineups this season, they rank far and away as the most offensively efficient.

How it works defensively
The spirit of Tom Thibodeau lives on in Boston, where the Celtics rank No. 1 in defensive efficiency. They were stingy with Allen and Jermaine O'Neal, but with Bradley in the backcourt they're downright ridiculous. As a frame of reference, the Celtics give up a league-best 95.3 points per 100 possessions overall, but with this unit on the floor, that number drops to 81.0. There's a danger of small sample size theater with a lineup that's played only 136 minutes together, but the crazy thing is that the gaudy 81.0 number keeps dropping the more this unit jells.

As Allen's contract expires at the end of the season, it appears the Celtics have some premium insurance if they don't reel in a top free agent at the shooting guard position. Bradley will never be able to offer the offensive punch Allen gives to the Celtics' half-court offense, but he's quickly becoming one of the most aggressive young defenders in the league -- and he's only 21.

Did you see Bradley's block of Dwyane Wade two Sundays ago? Did you see him deny Wade on the perimeter and lock onto him off every screen and curl? Bradley's prowess as an on-ball defender also allows Rondo to play off the ball, where he can use his long branches to play passing lanes and do a little gambling. Those arms also make Rondo a stellar choice to be one of the two back-size zone defenders in Boston's overloaded defense. Because as important as it is for the C's to suffocate the ball handler and send that extra body to the strong side, it's the two defenders on the weak side who have a ton of responsibility -- as they usually have to cover three guys.

Every NBA big man under age 25 should have the video coordinator at his team's training facility make a feature-length DVD of Garnett's half-court defense. If you watch him closely, you won't see a lot of blocked shots or pickpocketing. His defensive game is an exercise in nuance. At 35, Garnett could probably defend a pick-and-roll with a blindfold on, and his most notable contributions are simply where he situates himself on the court in relation to the offense. Garnett's hyperawareness of what the offense is trying to accomplish on a given possession is remarkable. Watch several dozen defensive possessions with this lineup, and you'll never witness an error in judgment by Garnett. All the while, he's calling out instructions to his teammates and guiding Bass to the right spots.

Bass didn't arrive in Boston with the reputation as the league's most linear thinker on defense, but in the confines of the Celtics' system, he is doing fine. Bass might lack Garnett's assertiveness when he shows hard on a high pick-and-roll. He looks nervous, at times, when he's defending away from the ball and has to make a quick help decision, but he's making progress.

That's the thing about systems, Boston's in particular. Allen was regarded as a sieve when he came over from Seattle in 2007, but immediately adopted the principles that governed the Celtics' D. All over the league, we're seeing players with reputations as iffy defenders figuring things out in a smart system (see Marreese Speights in Memphis, Spencer Hawes in Philadelphia to name a couple). These guys may not be all-NBA defenders, but they limit their personal liabilities in a scheme that protects them from making mistakes.

That's the Boston way.

---

Statistical support for this story comes from NBA.com.

A seven-and-a-half minute spurt of brilliance wasn’t enough for the New York Knicks to offset 40 minutes of what was a rough watch in their loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.

Knicks guard Jeremy Lin had his second-worst game as a Knick from a plus-minus perspective. When he was on the floor, despite his 13 points and seven assists, the Knicks were outscored by 11 points. This was a big difference from the 28-point, 14-assist game he had against the Mavericks two weeks ago.

The Knicks made a good chunk of their comeback at the start of the fourth quarter (before the Mavericks' strong finish) with Baron Davis on the floor instead of Lin.

It was also a rough game for Carmelo Anthony, who was 2-for-12 from the field. Video review showed that Anthony was 0-for-5 on jump shots and 0-for-4 on shots around the basket.

Anthony is hitting the former at just a 31 percent clip this season and the latter at 51 percent. In Anthony’s tenure as a Knick last season, he hit those shots at rates of 39 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

The Mavericks had 30 free throw attempts to the Knicks' 23. The Mavericks entered the game sixth-worst in the NBA in free throw attempts per game (21) and had allowed 111 more free throw attempts than they’d taken (the differential ranked fifth-worst in the NBA)

The Mavericks shot 23 fewer free throws than the Thunder in a Monday loss, prompting Jason Kidd to criticize the officiating after the contest.

Of the last nine reigning NBA champs before the Mavericks, none finished a regular season ranked in the bottom 10 in the league in free throw attempt differential.

Bosh return key for Heat
Chris Bosh returned from a three-game absence to help the Miami Heat pummel the New Jersey Nets. The Heat were 18-for-22, a season-best 82 percent from inside five feet, and outscored the Nets by 20 points in the paint. In the three games without Bosh, the Heat shot 58 percent from inside five feet.

The Heat also grabbed 36 defensive rebounds, two short of their season-high against Charlotte on Dec. 28.

Feats of the Night
Josh Smith scored 27 points in a win over the Indiana Pacers.

That's nothing new. The Hawks are 12-0 this season in games when Smith scores at least 20 points.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the best record this season by a player who scored 20 points in at least 10 games this season..

Also, Celtics forward Kevin Garnett had 13 rebounds on Tuesday, which gave him 13,100 for his career. With the 13th rebound he passed Shaquille O'Neal for 12th place on the all-time career rebounds list.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
Charlotte Bobcats backup center Byron Mullens had eight points and 13 rebounds in Charlotte’s 100-84 win over the Orlando Magic. In the 25 minutes that Mullens was on the court, the Bobcats outscored the Magic by 23 points.

This was the 61st career game for Mullens, but the first in which his plus-minus was in double figures on the positive side.

I was shocked to see Rajon Rondo at No. 17 in #NBA Rank and recently irked by his presence in the All-Star game. I am what you might call a "Rondo hater," insofar as that term means believing an athlete to be worse than consensus. Obviously, Rajon is good, obviously he can help a squad. This is simply a matter of, "Should he really have made three All-Star teams?," the way even Nash admirers question Steve's two MVPs.

This touches on a broader issue, one of what we expect from our point guards. The position has a certain cachet in the league. It means more to the average observer than say, power forward. A point guard is a team's "quarterback," its "engine," that drink-stirring straw. The point guard does not play on a squad so much as he animates it, infusing four others with his giving spirit. Or so the legend goes.

There is a platonic ideal for the point guard position, and that is to be an unselfish distributor. Rajon Rondo passes that test, no pun intended. The man is second in assists this year, and he notched a whopping 11.2 per game last year. For this reason, Rondo is considered a "pure point guard," the way other role-fitting stars might be considered "pure scorers." That he embodies an archetype might help explain how Rondo received a No. 17 #NBARank after a season in which he garnered a No. 69 PER.

But Rondo does not fit my platonic ideal for a point guard, because Boston's offense, to put it mildly, stinks. They are 23rd ranked in offensive efficiency this year, and this season is not exactly aberrational. In five-plus years with Rajon, the Celtics have only had a top 10 offense once. There are external factors to explain the anemic attack, but Rondo might be somewhat to blame despite his respectable PER.

To quote Bill Simmons on the matter: "Any smart team (like the Lakers last night) plays six feet off Rondo in tight games, daring him to shoot, paralyzing Boston's offense and leading to the dreaded "Clogged Toilet" play (Pierce ending up with the ball 25 feet from the hoop with seven seconds left trying to create something)." So he racks up assists, and certainly contributes. But Rajon's shooting woes might prevent him from running the kind of humming offense that Nash puppeteers.

Boston's defense was paramount during Rondo's reign, and the ball-hawking sprite deserves credit for his role. The issue is that point guard--as a position--might be less important defensively than those frontcourt spots. Recall how KG's arrival brought with it a renaissance of stringiness. While it is important for every man to play his defensive role, defense relies on occupying space, and the largest players are often the best space takers. This might have something to do with why Gary Payton was the last point guard to win Defensive Player of the Year, way back in 1996.

So this is a question of what you think a point guard's role is. Is it to get assists? Is it to run an efficient offense? Inject the question of whether defense is really 'half the game' for an offense-oriented position, and you have perhaps the NBA's hardest player to gauge.

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Sunday was a day in which Kobe Bryant made like Magic Johnson and Rajon Rondo made like both Johnson and Larry Bird.

In the afternoon’s first game, Bryant hit the game-winning shot with 4.2 seconds remaining to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 94-92 win over the Toronto Raptors.

It was the 16th time that Bryant hit a game-winning shot in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime, since his career began in 1996-1997. That’s the most in the NBA in that span- two more than Carmelo Antony.

Rondo raised his game a level in a 95-91 win over the Chicago Bulls, with 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds. A check of Basketball-Reference.com shows that he’s the fifth player with a 30-15-10 game since 1990, the other four being Johnson, Jason Kidd, Baron Davis, and LeBron James.

The last Celtic with a 30-15-10 game was Bird against the then-Washington Bullets in April, 1987.

The Boston Celtics have now allowed fewer than 100 points in 25 straight games. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that’s the longest single-season streak by any team since the 2004-05 Bulls (26 straight) and the seventh-longest streak in the shot-clock era, which dates to the 1954-55 season.

The NBA record is 36 straight games, set by the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons.

Elsewhere around the league the Miami Heat blew out the Atlanta Hawks, marking the sixth time this season, the Heat won by at least 20 points. Only the Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers have more blowout wins than Miami. However, the Sixers have been the on the receiving end of two of the Heat's routs.

LeBron James finished with 23 points, 13 rebounds and six assists for his 106th career-game with 20-10-5. Since 2003, his rookie season, James has the second-most such games behind Kevin Garnett.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
Washington Wizards guard John Wall finished a +28 in a 98-77 win over the Detroit Pistons. It was the best plus-minus for Wall in his 97-game NBA career.

A snapshot look at an abbreviated NBA schedule on Thursday:

Lakers win, but it wasn’t easy
The Los Angeles Lakers won one the hard way in Boston.

The Lakers went 1-for-15 (6.7 percent) from 3-point range in their overtime win over the Boston Celtics. The last time they shot worse than that and won on the road was on December 16, 1999 (won at Atlanta, 95-88, despite going 0-5).

The Lakers have won four straight games in Boston, the last three by one point, and the last two coming in overtime.

Kobe Bryant snapped a streak of three straight games in which he shot under 40 percent from the field (he was 11-for-24 in this one) and scored 27 points.

Kevin Garnett, who was 19-for-27 from the field in his last 2 games, was 6-for-23 in this one. As noted in the Daily Dime, the 17 misses were his most in a game since December, 2004.

Feat of the Night
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry scored 36 points while going 13-17 (77 percent) from the field.

A check of Basketball-Reference.com shows that the last Warriors player to shoot that well and score that many points was center Rony Seikaly on December 30, 1994. Seikaly totaled 38 points on 12-14 (86 percent) from the field in a loss at the Mavericks.

Also of note: Steve Nash had his 12th game this season of at least 10 points and 10 assists. At age 38, leads the NBA in 10/10 games, with one more than 21-year-old Ricky Rubio and 27-year-old Deron Williams.

Streakbusters
Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan had their streaks of 14 and 13 consecutive All-Star selections come to an end when they were not picked to the All-Star team on Thursday.

The Golden State Warriors extended their streak of consecutive seasons without an All-Star selection to 14. Their last All-Star representative was Latrell Sprewell in 1996-1997.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
The Houston Rockets won again with their bench in a 96-89 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Each of the five Rockets starters had a plus-minus of -13 or worse. But all five subs that head coach Kevin McHale used finished with a +17 or better.

Reserve point guard Goran Dragic was a +27 against his former team, the best plus-minus tally of his 232-game career. He finished with 11 points and tied a career high with 11 assists.

This was the second straight big game for the Rockets bench, which scored a season-high 66 points in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

Kevin Garnett played his share of zone defense under Flip Saunders in Minnesota, but I never thought I'd see the day when the Celtics would zone up against the Heat for an extended stretch with Garnett on the floor.

First off, let's offer up a few disclaimers. On virtually every half-court possession, the Celtics are zoned up on at least half of the floor. This is the defining characteristic of the Thibodeau/Strong-Side Pressure defense deployed by the Celtics, Bulls and the Lakers (2008-2011). The instant the ball works it way to one side of the floor, the Celtics send an extra body to the ball, then zone up 3-on-4 behind the action.

Still, the Thibs brand of defense is a far cry from a full-on zone, which is what the Celtics threw at the Heat with a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter. The Celtics rode the zone until the final buzzer, a span during which the Heat failed to score on 18 of 23 possessions and the C's sneaked back into the game.

That number suggests that the Celtics' zone gave the Heat fits, but after the game the Heat challenged the premise and insisted that the Celtics' zone was merely a symptom of the larger problem.

From Tom Haberstroh at Heat Index:

Many will remember the sequence going like this: the Celtics ran a zone and then the Heat couldn't score.

However, the Heat actually see it differently. In their nuanced version, it played out like this:

The Celtics hit their shots, which gave them time to set up the zone defense, and then the Heat couldn't get into their signature up-tempo game.

It's a critical distinction and LeBron James made it clear after the game when someone asked him why the offense sputtered in the second half.

"We didn’t get too many defensive stops," LeBron James said. "When we get stops, it gives us an opportunity to run. They started shooting the ball extremely well from three. It allowed them to get back into their zone to slow us up."

Even for a team that wants to create fast breaks out of thin air, you can't run-and-gun without a trigger -- unless you have Steve Nash on your team. The Heat created havoc defensively for the first 30 minutes of the game, using a litany of Boston turnovers to ignite their virtually unstoppable fast break attack spearheaded by LeBron and Dwyane Wade. And then Keyon Dooling and Ray Allen started draining shots from downtown and the Heat had to take the ball out of bounds every time down the floor.

"The ironic thing that the best way to beat a zone is on your own defensive end," Shane Battier said after the game. "It all starts on defense. If we make them miss and we can push like we did in the first half, you can’t get in the zone."

If you watch the tape from Tuesday's game, the Heat generated good opportunities against the zone even though they scored only five times in 22 possessions against it.

At Heat.com, Couper Moorhead breaks down some tape of the Heat's struggle against the zone, a stretch during which rookie dynamo point guard Norris Cole manned the point. Cole was the night's big winner. He scored 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter (more than half of Miami's total for the period), the majority of those buckets on long jumpers against that Celtics' zone.

Moorhead noted a certain irony in the Heat's struggles against the zone. The age-old antidote to a zone defense is sharp cuts and constant motion that gets the defense's head on a swivel -- exactly the kind of stuff the Heat have been deploying in their new-look offense:

What was strangest about Miami’s struggles against the zone was that, against man defense, the HEAT are cutting so freely to the rim, but when Boston changed the look to one that often offers more predictably open space, all that natural movement that has given Miami big leads in each of its first two games stopped happening.

Why?

Shane Battier smiled, gave a little shrug and simply said he didn’t know. Dwyane Wade said it was simply a matter of getting more comfortable, given that this was the first time they’ve seen zone this season – against a team that only ran it 41 possessions last year, for that matter. Chris Bosh echoed that sentiment, that it is a feeling out process against a defense that is tougher, literally, to get a feel for.

“That’s the first time we’ve seen zone other than practice. We can’t expect us to come out and destroy it,” Bosh said. “When they change that look a little bit, it kind of makes you stall and look a little. I think we can still be aggressive. We can teach the same philosophies that we have in the man defense. The man is a little bit easier because you know where your man is, you know where you’re going, and we’re spread out.

“You don’t always want to cut into somebody. That’s the tough part about a zone, sometimes you want to make a cut and you cut right into somebody. If we’re cutting down the lane and opening it up for somebody else, that’ll be great.”

On two of Cole’s late-game jumpers, with Miami up three and under two minutes to play, exactly what Bosh described happened. The cut into space altered the zone, creating space for a shooter. Space wins.

As Moorhead points out, the Heat averaged better than a point per possession against the zone in 2010-11, and this season's roster appears more equipped than ever to combat a zone. Wade is a human zone-buster, and the Heat have added Battier, a player who has two attributes that help an offense against a zone -- he can stretch the floor and make reads off the ball.

The Miami Heat closed the game on a 16-0 run as they defeated the Boston Celtics to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since their championship run in 2006.

For the second straight game the teams battled down the stretch, and for the second consecutive contest it was the "Big Three" of the Heat that made all the plays.

The trio combined to score 23 of the Heat's 26 fourth-quarter points after scoring the last 31 points for the team in Game 4.

Boston's "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined for just 2 points on 1-for-9 shooting in the fourth quarter.

LeBron James closed the game in impressive fashion scoring the final 10 points of the contest. He scored 23 of his 33 points after halftime as his jump shot came alive.

Video tracking showed James struggled from 15 feet and out for most of the series. But on Wednesday, he hit five of his final seven attempts from 15 feet and out, including two 3-pointers during the game-ending run.

While it was all about James late, Dwyane Wade led all scorers with 34 points, 23 of which came in the first half to keep Miami in the game. Chris Bosh scored just 14 points but six came in the fourth quarter.

This marked the second straight game those three players scored at least 83 percent of the team's points.

During the Heat's late spurt, they stopped settling for mid-range jumpers over the final three minutes, 43 seconds of the game, instead opting for shots close to the rim or threes.

The Heat had two dunks in the final 3:43, after making just one throughout the first 44 minutes of the game.

While the Heat will wait for the winner of the series between the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks, Boston will head into its offseason needing to figure what to do about its fourth-quarter woes.

Particularly troubling, over the last two games the Heat trio outscored the Celtics “Big Three” 40-9 in the fourth quarter, continuing Boston’s trend of tiring down the stretch.

With Garnett on the bench to start the fourth, the Celtics actually built their lead from two points up to seven before he entered for Jeff Green. Once he came back, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 17 to finish the game.

Throughout the entire postseason, the Celtics were outscored by 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime with Garnett, Allen and Pierce on the court together.

The fourth quarter was a trouble area for the Celtics all year. During the regular season Boston scored the third fewest points per game in the fourth quarter.

As the "Big Three" of the Miami Heat took over late in Game 4, the "Big Three" of the Boston Celtics faded noticeably, begging the question: Has the postseason wear and tear taken its toll on the Celtics trio?

With three days' rest, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined for 70 points in the Celtics Game 3 win. Two nights later, they combined for just 51 points on 16-of-42 (38.1 percent) shooting.

Garnett was the biggest culprit of the three. Following a 28-point, 18-rebound performance in Game 3, Garnett finished with 7 points on 1-of-10 shooting in Game 4. That marked his lowest field goal percentage in any of his 104 career playoff games.

So what happened?

It appeared that the Heat's athleticism wore down Boston's "Big Three." In the first and third quarters of Game 4, the Celtics were +8 when Allen, Garnett and Pierce were on the floor.

But in the second quarter, fourth quarter and overtime, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 13 with Garnett, Pierce and Allen on the court.

This has been a trend all postseason for Boston's three stars.

In the first and third quarters this postseason, the Celtics are +74 with the "Big 3" on the court. However, in the second and fourth quarters -- perhaps without the benefit of an extended break -- the Celtics are -15 with Allen, Garnett and Pierce on the floor.

In a game that saw the Heat's "Big Three" score all 29 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, Boston's trio scored just 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting during that same stretch.