Heat - Celtics Game Three Top 30 Takeaways

30) Paul Pierce's defense on LeBron James with two minutes in, where no foul was called on hard transition defense, was your first clue of the great get-even ref work

29) Miami started 1 for 5 from the line, which is what we call a leading indicator

28) When Greg Stiesma leads with a straight arm at home, he gets to the line

27) I'm not prepared to live in a world where Mario Chalmers is more or less consistently useful

26) Mikael Pietrus tried to take an intentional foul, but the refs refused to call it, which was, well, another clue of how this was going to be called

25) When Keyon Dooling is wildly over-caffienated and able to force backcourt violations with cross body blocks, he can be effective

24) Both teams shot 60% in the first quarter, just to prove this whole defense thing is just a myth

23) Garnett went down like he was shot, then added something new for his cheerleader highlight reel by doing knuckle push ups

22) The Celtics' bench players were extraordinarily fresh, because Doc Rivers is a genius

21) When Miami does not score, they really lose the motivation required to play quality defense, which does not exactly speak to the idea of Erik Spoelstra Is A Good Coach

20) Allen's corner three to make the lead 13 before the half was more or less a clear sign that this wasn't going to be a game

19) The Heat really could miss enough free throws to make this a series

18) Rondo's steal with 3:20 left in the third was a clear sign of knowing his opponent, and the Heat's need for long showy passes in transition

17) Marquis Daniels showed the value of having perhaps the freshest legs in the Association

16) Udonis Haslem gave Rondo the biggest matador ole you've ever seen on a ball fake to lay up

15) Miami really might want to reconsider this only play defense at home strategy

14) James was the only Heat player to really show up in the first three quarters tonight, so it's his fault they were never really in it

13) When Miami goes small, Garnett's flop look even sillier

12) Just because he runs like Fred Sanford doesn't mean Mike Miller can't still shoot from distance and be one of their better players

11) Why the Celtics chose to play up-tempo with a big lead and the Heat going small, we'll never know

10) Boston Fan is outraged that Garnett's reputation for punk behavior is so widespread that even Mario Chalmers can playact a technical from him

9) Shane Battier should realize that he's not getting block/charge calls on the road

8) When the Heat went small, the Celtics got away from Rondo and ball movement and relied on Garnett in the half court, which is rarely a good idea for them

7) If Chalmers and Miller had played any quarter but the fourth, the Heat might have won this game

6) The fact that Spoelstra didn't think to go small and make the game helter-skelter until his club was dead and buried should tell you something about why he rents, rather than owns

5) If you like clearly audible f-bombs on national TV, there really is no substitute for a Celtics game

4) Rondo went Globetrotter for an inbounds play with 2 minutes left, then scored the killshot layup when the Heat just assumed he was going to run clock

3) As much as Boston controlled this game, the Heat could have stolen it by hitting some free throws and going small faster

2) The better team won tonight, just as in the first two games of the series, regardless of the officiating conspiracy

1) Just like OKC, we are one more home team win from officially having a series