C's Shock Heat During Epic Night at TD Garden

addByline("Marc D'Amico", "Celtics.com", "Marc_DAmico");

BOSTON – One word can be used to describe Wednesday night at TD Garden: epic.

Epic in so many ways.

On a night during which Boston looked dead in the water at halftime, trailing the Heat by 24 points, and on a night during which its 1966, 1976 and 1986 championship teams were honored in front of a raucous Garden crowd, the Celtics staged an improbable comeback that will go down in history as one of the greatest to ever be pulled off in their building.

Boston stormed back from its massive halftime deficit with a furious run to open the third quarter. Behind gutsy defense and a revitalized offense, the Celtics opened the second half with a 23-3 run that sliced their deficit down to four in less than eight minutes of action.

“We just sat there (at halftime) and talked in this (calm) tenor and said, ‘Who do we want to be? There’s guys sitting around this building that hung banners,’” Brad Stevens said before continuing, “’How do you want to play? How do we want to feel about ourselves?’”

He concluded his thought in succinct fashion: “And we just looked different after that.”

The Celtics, who shot just 33.3 percent from the field during the first half while allowing Miami to shoot 56.0 percent, flipped the script during the third quarter – and then some. Boston connected on 52.4 percent of its shots while limiting the Heat to just five points on 10.0 percent.

The five-point quarter set a new franchise record in Boston for best defensive performance during a third period.

“We got into the ball,” Stevens said of his team’s record-setting defensive effort. “We were tough.”

Such a style of play was symbolic of the Celtics Legends who watched the performance from their nearby courtside seats. The likes of Bill Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, Satch Sanders, John Havlicek, Jo Jo White, Kevin McHale, Dave Cowens, Bill Walton and many others dotted the seats that surrounded the parquet floor. They were just feet away from the action, watching with proud eyes from an all-too-familiar vantage point as their team staged an unbelievable comeback in true Celtic fashion.

The fact that more than 20 Celtic Legends were on hand to observe the NBA’s greatest comeback of the season made Wednesday night all the more special.

There was a certain aura in the air ahead of tip-off, as legendary figures like Russell, Havlicek and McHale made their way about the building. Many of these former champions hold massive real estate in the annals of NBA history; they were the fuel to an engine that has chugged its way to a record 17 championships.

Having them all under the same roof, likely for the very first time – and quite possibly the last – was unquestionably a celebration of epic proportions.

The current Celtics, ripe at the average age of just 24.6 years old, gave their predecessors nothing to be proud of during the first half. They struggled, to say the least, and lacked the energy and grit they have become known for.

“It was embarrassing,” Avery Bradley, the de facto captain of the Celtics, said of the opening two quarters. “They (the Heat) probably beat us in every single category.

“That’s embarrassing, to have all these Legends in the building and having us playing this way.”

As the young C’s stared each other in the eyes inside the halftime locker room, the former C’s were introduced one-by-one before a giddy Garden crowd. Russell, Heinsohn, McHale and Walton received resounding ovations that surely could be heard deep inside the arena by the current team.

Maybe that’s what sparked the turnaround, and maybe that’s what turned an already unforgettable night into an epic one.

As Boston caught its groove and built upon the energy that invigorated the crowd at halftime, the Legends began to groove as well.

“In the second half,“ Bradley said, “I saw a few of them smiling, and it got everybody smiling on the bench.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he continued, “going out there and playing Celtic basketball. We are a family.”

A historic family, one that’s linked by 70 seasons of tradition, 17 banners and countless Legends.

The fact that many of those Legends were on hand for Wednesday night’s unfathomable comeback made this night nothing short of epic.