WTF of the Day: LeBron James, Heat go up 2-0 after late 14-0 run buries Celtics

MIAMI -- With the outcome decided in the final seconds, LeBron James walked toward Mario Chalmers to begin his version of a celebration.

He playfully punched his teammate twice in the chest.

Fitting, because James and the Miami Heat have now landed two blows against the Boston Celtics.

James scored 24 of his 35 points in the second half, Dwyane Wadeadded 28 and the Heat used a late 14-0 run to pull away and beat the aching Celtics 102-91 in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.

"Feel good about it," James said. "Series is far -- far, far, far -- away from over. It's really just beginning for us."

James shot 14 of 25 from the field, and logged 44 minutes with no turnovers. Chris Bosh finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds for Miami, which leads the best-of-seven 2-0.

Game 3 in Boston isn't until Saturday night, and the Celtics may be particularly thankful for the break.

Rajon Rondo played through a balky back to score 20 points and add 12 assists for Boston, which got 16 points from Kevin Garnett and 13 from Paul Pierce -- who retreated to the locker room for treatment on his strained left Achilles in the first half. Ray Allenwas held to seven points, and left with what he said was a bruised chest cavity courtesy of an elbow from James in the third quarter.

"Being down 2-0 doesn't scare any of us, doesn't make us nervous," Allen said. "It's just an opportunity to come out shining."

Have Some Pride

Only four teams have ever come back from a 2-0 series deficit in the conference semifinals and won the series.

Year	Team	Opp.
2008	Spurs	Hornets
2004	Lakers	Spurs
1995	Rockets	Suns
1994	Rockets	Suns
-- Source: ESPN Stats and Information

Boston tied the game at 80 on a pair of free throws by Pierce with 7:10 left. The Celtics missed their next six shots and Miami pulled away, taking command of both the game and the series.

"That's our staple. We know the only way for us to win games, especially in the playoffs, is to play defense," James said. "Everyone has each other's back. If one guy gets beat, another steps up. They made a run, a heck of a run ... but we just kept grinding, kept playing our principles, and we finally wore them down."

Jeff Green scored 11 and Delonte West added 10 for the Celtics.

Even for a franchise with such fabled history as the Celtics, a 2-0 deficit represents a colossal challenge.

This is now the ninth time Boston has dropped the first two games in a best-of-seven series. In the previous eight, the Celtics prevailed only against theLos Angeles Lakers in the 1969 NBA finals.

And it's something this group of Celtics has never faced before, either.

The last time Boston lost the first two games of a playoff matchup was in 2004, when it was swept by Indiana. The current core of Celtics had lost Game 1s four other times before this series, then bounced back to win Game 2 each time, against Chicago and Orlando in 2009, then Cleveland and the Lakers in 2010.

Not this time.

"Nothing we can do about it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We've got a third game and we've got to take care of that. Whatever the past is, it is. They've won two games at home. But we can't allow them to play like this, or it's going to be tough at our place."To win this series, Boston will need to prevail four times in a five-game span -- which it did in the first round against Miami last year, then again in the second round at the expense of James and the Cavaliers in the East semis. So it can be done, but neither James (7-0) nor Wade (5-0) has ever been part of a playoff series defeat after their clubs won the first two games.

"This is a great team we are going against right now," James said. "We're just trying to give ourselves a good chance to win, just try to keep on attacking them, playing as hard as we can defensively, just trying to wear them down throughout the game, but it's a great team."

That's one of the titles the Heat are trying to claim, too.

James won the MVP award in 2009 and 2010, his reign officially ending a couple hours before Tuesday's game when the NBA made the long-expected announcement that Chicago's Derrick Rose was this season's top player.

James' name did not appear on nine of the 121 ballots cast. Wade was entirely left off all but 10 of the ballots; voters were asked to rank the league's best five players.

They noticed.

"At the end of the day, we don't really play this game for individual awards," Wade said. "He has two MVP trophies, which is awesome. I have a finals MVP trophy. Our body of work speaks for itself. What we've done in this game speaks for itself."

The Celtics had more than a chance to avoid the 0-2 hole.

James scored 12 points in the third quarter, one more than he managed in the first half, to help Miami take a 72-67 cushion into the final 12 minutes. James then added the first basket of the fourth, but Boston answered with a 13-6 run over the next 4 minutes to knot the game at 80.

The outcome was undecided -- momentarily.

That's when Miami's big run began, including a three-point play where James dunked and got fouled after Joel Anthony kept an offensive rebound alive. Chalmers started it all with a 3-pointer -- his only points of the night -- off a pass from Wade, and Miami was on its way.

"Great trust," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Jermaine O'Neal had a chance to end Boston's drought with 4:53 left, but his dunk was partially blocked by Anthony and bounced off the rim. James hit a long jumper from the left corner 17 seconds later, pushing the Heat lead to 92-80, their biggest to that point and the celebration was underway a few minutes later.

"Now the mental discipline begins," Spoelstra said. "This thing is just getting started."

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

2011 NBA Playoffs: Paul Pierce must show he learned his lesson

MIAMI -- Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce had some house cleaning to do Monday. Before he could resume preparing for the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, he needed to put his transgressions from Game 1 behind him and wash clean a new stain on the reputation he has worked tirelessly to enhance as his career enters its final stages.

Pierce was ejected Sunday after picking up a pair of technicals 59 seconds apart. He was tagged with the first for confronting Miami's James Jones and making bodily contact with him in the aftermath of a hard foul. Less than a minute later, referee Ed Malloy tossed Pierce for a "verbal taunt" directed at Miami guard Dwyane Wade, who rammed into Pierce after the Celtics forward set a screen.

[+] Enlarge

Steve Mitchell/US PresswirePaul Pierce admitted Monday that he "probably overreacted" in getting ejected from Game 1.

It was a stunning development for a self-described leader who so often sets the tone for his team. Pierce, clearly distraught, left the arena without speaking to anyone. On Monday, he willingly stepped into a throng of media and did what he should have done Sunday afternoon: He bit his lip until it bled.

In his first public comments since Malloy ruined his evening, Pierce acknowledged he should have kept his composure and that his behavior was "selfish."

"I probably overreacted," Pierce conceded. "I thought I was fouled excessively on both plays, actually. It probably should have been a flagrant on both players but it's up to me to keep my composure."

Boston's leading scorer was clearly still seething over why and how he was ejected from Sunday's game. His obscenity-laced challenge to Wade, in his mind, wasn't enough to warrant the technical. He wasn't alone in that opinion. Coaches, commentators, players and media members have weighed in with similar assertions. Yet Pierce wisely stopped short of indicting Malloy.

"You know, sometimes a player gets caught up in the hype of the game, and sometimes the ref does too," Pierce said. "He reacted the way he thought, and that's what it was."

Now that's more like it. Whether Pierce sincerely subscribes to those comments or not, it is incumbent upon him to show restraint -- something he failed to do in the heat of Game 1. Regardless of whether Malloy overreacted, Pierce never should have put himself in a position where Malloy could affect his day so dramatically.

Pierce got the message -- from his front office, his coaching staff and his teammates. The memo they delivered was to put the incident behind him, and he did so Monday by being contrite and self-examining.

Throughout Pierce's career, the emotional component of his game has been both his biggest strength and his biggest weakness. His demonstrative approach often has sparked his team to victory, but also has occasionally led it astray.

Pierce is all about positive self-talk. If he misses four of five shots, as he did in the first half Sunday, it will not deter him from continuing to hoist it up if he's open. In fact, it was Pierce who ignited a 12-0 run early in the third quarter that whittled a 19-point deficit down to 7.

It also was Pierce who drilled a 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds on the clock in the third quarter.

But then the over-amped Pierce kicked in. He fired up an ill-advised trey to start the fourth quarter, committed a silly foul on Jones with 9:46 to go that awarded the Heat's sniper three free throws, then followed that up less than two minutes later with the back-to-back implosions that soon were the talk of the NBA.

"How can you tell a guy not to be emotional?" teammate Glen Davis asked. "Most of the time that emotion is good because it shows he cares."

Pierce was peeved on two fronts, first because of the belief his punishment was unjust, and second because of the negative public backlash his actions created.

He confessed he was awaiting a verdict from the league on whether further action would be taken against him for his contact with Jones, which could be best described as a passive version of a head-butt.

"It's always a concern when things happen," he said. "Right now it's out of my control. They're going to view it the way they view it and they're going to come to a decision. I'm definitely worried because if it's a situation where it affects my team, it's very selfish.

A league spokesman confirmed Monday there will be no further action taken against Pierce."It was selfish of me [Sunday] night but it will hurt even more if the league decides to suspend me, if that's what they saw."

Suffice to say, he's suffered enough.

One thing was abundantly clear: The bad karma from Game 1 will not stop Pierce from challenging the Heat or coming to work for Game 2 with the same emotion he brought to the opener.

"I don't need no motivation," he insisted. "I don't need that to fire me up. I'm going to come out every game the same, regardless of what happens. I'm going to be ready to play for the simple fact that we lost."

Doc Rivers correctly determined that Pierce's night of infamy will have no bearing on Game 2. He will start out with the same number of technical fouls as everyone else -- zero. It's up to the captain to keep that number at a goose egg.

Truthfully, the Celtics have more pressing issues to correct than Pierce's temper. They need to limit Miami's transition baskets, establish ball movement and exploit Kevin Garnett's matchup in the post against Chris Bosh. They need to cut down on their turnovers and ramp up their defensive pressure. They need to put a hand in Jones' face. They need Rajon Rondo to calm himself and run the offense.

"I thought we were a pretty easy team to guard," Rivers said.

Pierce insisted his long, miserable night did not keep him from sleeping because, he reasoned, he saw things the Celtics could control in Game 2.

Presumably, their emotions are at the top of the list.