Garnett: Celtics played ‘desperation basketball’

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics left Miami on Wednesday down 0-2 to the Heat, facing a must-win Game 3 at home 48 hours later.

The overtime loss was disheartening, but Ray Allen looked at it in a positive perspective.

I think at this point all of our losses are an opportunity, Ray Allen told CSNNE.com prior to Game 3. It kind of galvanizes us and you start thinking about the things that you could do better, the things that we need to do better. It's unfortunate when you lose but you always have to figure out how to get better.

On Friday, the Celtics took note of their mistakes and bounced back with a 101-91 win at the TD Garden to cut the Heats series lead, 2-1.

Desperation game, to be honest, said Kevin Garnett (24 points, 11 rebounds). And we played like it, too. You dont want to be down 3-0 to a team like this. Very, very good team, very talented team, well-coached team. I feel like we played desperation basketball.

In spite of building a 24-point lead, the Heat cut the deficit to eight with less than three minutes to go. But unlike previous games, the Celtics were able to buckle down and maintain their lead. Running on a combination of tired legs and adrenaline, they responded with buckets of their own to hold on to a critical victory.

Everybody knows weve been able to bounce back, said Paul Pierce (23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists). We know were capable. Weve got to take it one game at a time. Were a team, were not going to lose confidence being down 2-0. We dont look at the statistics, we dont look at the records. Records are made to be broken. Usually they saying being down 2-0, what happens, but we dont believe in any of that stuff. Were just going to take it one game at a time, hopefully hold down our home court in Game 4, and see what happens when we come back from Miami.