Celtics beat Heat in overtime

BOSTON — Rajon Rondo delivered the trash talk at halftime and the big plays in overtime.

And after one final defensive stand — maybe assisted by a Boston Garden ghost — the Boston Celtics are two wins away from a chance to play for another NBA championship.

Rondo had 15 points and 15 assists, and scored the final three points of the Celtics’ 93-91 overtime victory over the Miami Heat on Sunday night that evened the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece.

Getting a huge break when LeBron James fouled out for the first time since he joined the Heat, the Celtics recovered after blowing an 18-point lead in regulation and moved two games away from a third trip to the NBA finals in the past five years.

Kevin Garnett added 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Celtics. Paul Pierce scored 23 points before fouling out. Ray Allen finished with 16 points.

“Stops,” Rondo said when asked what was the difference in the tight game. “I think we executed offensively, came up with some lucky plays and we got stops at the end.”

James had 29 points and Dwyane Wade scored 20 after another dismal start for the Heat, who host Game 5 on Tuesday.

“Not stressed the series is tied 2-2,” James said. “It’s great basketball, great competition. We wanted to get one up here and we didn’t.”

A game that at one point looked like a Celtics’ blowout turned into a foul- and tension-filled fourth quarter, followed by the second overtime in this series. The Celtics held on when Wade missed a potential winning 3-pointer on the last possession.

“It was a good look. It was online but didn’t want to go in,” Wade said. “Got the shot off I wanted and that is all you can ask for.”

Celtics coach Doc Rivers had his own unusual reasoning for Wade’s oh-so-close shot.

“Red wasn’t going to let that go in. Not in the Boston Garden,” he said of former coach Red Auerbach.

Mickael Pietrus drew James’ sixth foul and grabbed two huge offensive rebounds that extended consecutive possessions for the Celtics, who lost Game 4 in overtime in a second-round series against the Heat last year with a chance to tie the series.

This time, they overcame their second-half stall on the offensive end by limiting the Heat to just one basket in overtime, by Udonis Haslem, who finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds. “At the end you have a chance to win after 50-plus minutes and losing the MVP. Hey, you’ll take that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Rondo’s layup gave the Celtics a 92-91 lead with 2:34 left, and neither team scored again until he made a free throw with 21 seconds to play.

Boston scored 61 points in a first half that concluded with some televised trash talk from Rondo. But the Celtics managed just 12 points in the third quarter.

“Our execution in the first half was flawless,” Rivers said. “It was as good as maybe we’ve had. And then we just got away from it.”

And after leading the Celtics to the highest-scoring half the Heat have surrendered this postseason, Rondo said in his televised halftime interview that what was working for Boston was the Heat “complaining and crying to the referees in transition.” The feisty point guard didn’t back down after the game.

“What I said was true,” he said. “I don’t take back what I said. That’s what it is.”

NBA Notes

LeRoy Ellis, who played 14 years in the NBA after a standout career at St. John’s, has died of prostate cancer. He was 72. Ellis died Saturday in Portland, Ore. He was a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn, and played at St. John’s from 1959-62. He still holds the school single-season record for rebounding with an average of 16.5 in his junior year. Ellis appeared in 1,048 NBA games with the Lakers, Baltimore, Portland and Philadelphia. He posted career averages of 9.7 points and 8.3 rebounds, and was a member of Los Angeles’ 1972 championship team.

He was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers in their first season in 1970-71 and led the team in rebounds (12.3) and ranked third in scoring (15.9). It was his only season the Portland.