BOSTON -- With his head down and eyes closed, LeBron James pulled off his uniform inside a quiet and dejected visitors locker room at TD Garden and shuffled into the shower.

The color of that uniform is different now but he's been there before, leaving Boston with depression and frustration in his stomach.

So has Dwyane Wade, who sat nearby, shoulders slumped, icing his feet. Like James, Wade's season ended in this place last year. Like James, he was searching for optimism that this season, despite the Heat's radical makeover, is destined to end differently.

The Celtics won a game against the Heat on Sunday 85-82. Kevin Garnett made a clutch shot late, Mike Miller missed one. Glen Davis made pressure free throws, James missed one. Those are the final details but they say nothing of the subtext.

Both sides attempted to deny it. The game was played Feb. 13, not even Valentine's Day much less the All-Star break, which triggered a stream of platitudes about how in the grand scheme it is meaningless.

Frankly, though, that's too tough a sell. Wade and James know it and so do the Celtics, their pride at the victory and their continued dominance over this potential new rivalry shining through.

Boston is now 3-0 against the re-tooled Heat this season, re-tooled to beat Boston, as a matter of fact. The two wins in the season's first month can be minimized because they occurred squarely in the Heat's adjustment period.

This one came with the Celtics using really only seven players -- five potential rotation players were out with injury -- and with Paul Pierce having one of the worst shooting games of his career because of injuries to his hand and foot.

"You can tell I'm upset," James said in an uncharacteristic tone. "I just want to win. We all want to win."

The Celtics started four All-Stars and were playing at home, so it wasn't like they got it done with smoke and mirrors. Actually they did it with their old standbys, poise and defense, despite having to resort to some odd tactics, such as Rajon Rondo defending James at times and Von Wafer carrying the load on offense for a bit.

But it worked and that's what counts. Other than Pierce, the rest of Boston's six core players Sunday scored in double figures, including Davis and Wafer combining for 26 off the bench. Rondo logged a triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists with just one turnover. Garnett and Kendrick Perkins combined to shoot 12-of-20 to offset Pierce's 0-of-10.

The Celtics held the Heat, who arrived in Boston with an eight-game winning streak and determined to stake a claim, to 41 percent shooting and shut down Miami's supporting cast. Wade, James and Chris Bosh combined for 62 points but the rest of the team was 7-of-25 shooting.

"It was obviously a huge win for us with all the stuff we have going on," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said before making sure to downplay the accomplishment. "If there's a mental message, I don't know what it would be. They're pretty tough over there. So, I hope there is, I just don't think there is."

Oh really? How about that James has lost 13 of his past 14 games in Boston including the playoffs? Or that the Heat have lost 13 of the past 14 to the Celtics including the playoffs? The message was the Heat aren't gaining any ground on the top dogs.

"I know everybody wanted to really overstate this game and make it probably bigger than it was," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We've got another 28 games to continue to get better and move along in this process."

Spoelstra reached back to the Heat's 2006 title year to remind everyone the Heat were 0-2 against the Mavericks in the regular season and then fell down 0-2 in the Finals before raging to the victory. A few minutes after Spoelstra spoke, James and Wade both talked about how they'd each already mimicked Michael Jordan in their careers by having to get past the Pistons in the playoffs after suffering defeats.

"I've got the same feeling right now as I had in my third year or my fourth year when we continued to play Detroit and could not get over the hump," James said, referencing a series loss to the Pistons in the playoffs in 2006 and falling down 0-2 in the 2007 conference finals before rallying to win.

"It took a long time for us to finally get over the hump. I've been in this position before."

All those stories do have happy endings. There have been innumerable occasions in league history when the scales reverse when the playoffs start -- it happens nearly every year. But pointing toward the history books and actually making the history are two different things.

The Heat and Celtics know that.

"This is classic, typical bigger brothers. You've got to get over it," Wade said. "We've got plenty of time, it can happen in the playoffs. That's when we'd like it to happen anyway."

All of that is sound thinking. But so is this: The big brothers still have the Heat in a headlock.

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