



MIAMI – The general manager of the Boston Celtics was trying to understand how LeBron James could get to the free-throw line those 24 times, and so Danny Ainge stood in the hallway recreating a clear-path foul call for the NBA's vice president of referee operations, Joe Borgia. Ainge slid his feet, and tried to show how the Celtics defender had reached around to the Miami Heat star, how they were far too close to the rim for that call.

"How?" Ainge asked him.

They did some kind of a dance here late Wednesday night, Borgia and Ainge, the NBA official delivering his explanation, and Ainge, the ultimate contrarian, challenging the premises. And hey, how could Paul Pierce foul out again? How could the Heat get to the free-throw line 47 times? These were the things on Ainge's mind, and there would be no satisfaction coming out of here for these Celtics, no solace out of an epic effort and a historic performance out of Rajon Rondo. Ainge was persistent, polite and Borgia finally relented that he'd watch the film of the Heat's 115-111 Game 2 overtime victory.

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"I'm sure we missed five or six calls somewhere," Borgia said.

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Well, wonderful. That's true every night in the NBA, but the Celtics were feeling victimized, like they were on the wrong end of the whistle. Down the hall inside the visiting locker room, coach Doc Rivers didn't need to see the film. Here he was, standing in a doorway to the coach's room, lurched forward and slapping himself upside his head and recreating the moment where everything started to slip away in these Eastern Conference finals.

Oh, this was where the Celtics were sure this devastating loss had gone sideways for them, where Rondo – on the way to a force-of-nature 44 points – had gone up-and-under the rim, flipped the ball off the backboard only to have the sweeping arm of Dwyane Wade come crashing down on his face. He crumpled to the ground with the score 105-105 and a minute left in overtime, and within moments, Udonis Haslem dunked the ball, and the Heat never lost the lead again.

"It was obvious," Rondo said.

Rivers seethed, but he could change nothing late Wednesday night. "LeBron James took 24 free throws, and our team took 29. Paul Pierce fouled out of a game where he was attacking the basket. I guarantee you right now, they're distracted, our team, in the locker room.

"But we have to get it out of us and move on."

In the foggy aftermath of a devastating loss, the Celtics didn't know whether to be discouraged that they gave everything within them, and yet they're still down 2-0 to the Heat; discouraged that Rondo delivered one of the great Celtics playoff performances ever, an unbowed 53 minutes of hellacious fortitude where those 44 points had come with 10 assists, eight rebounds and three steals and still Boston couldn't beat Miami.

They didn't know whether to be encouraged that they found a way to make James and Wade work to score, that blitzing those Heat pick-and-rolls kept those stars from getting separation on Celtics defenders. Boston matched the Heat on the backboards and the floorboards. In the foggy aftermath, they understood that they let one slip away, that they gifted the Heat the franchise's greatest playoff comeback ever, from 15 points down to utter heartbreak for the Celtics.

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