Garnett grimaced in pain, then rolled over and did eight pushups before going to the bench for a timeout. Garnett wants everyone to know those were bare-knuckle pushups.
"I'm getting crap about my form, but I want people to notice it was on the knuckles," Garnett said. "That's old-school. .. There's very few who do them on their knuckles. That's some Army-Navy type stuff. Yeah, knuckles."
Garnett put the Celtics on his back and lifted the Celtics to a 101-91 victory over the Heat in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Garnett had 24 points and 11 rebounds, his seventh game of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in this season's playoffs. He had just seven 20-10 games in 60 regular-season games this season.
"Desperation game, man, to be honest, and we played like it, too," he said. "We didn't want to be down 3-0 to a team like this, a very, very good team, a very talented team, a well-coached team. It felt like we played desperation basketball."
Garnett hasn't turned the clock back 10 years. It's not even the Kevin Garnett of 2007-2008 when the Celtics won the NBA championship.
But even knowing the end is near, he's still a dangerous and proud player at 36 years old.
"KG is a difficult matchup for a lot of guys, period," Heat forward LeBron James said. "He started off really well. That's part of the reason why they had 58 points in the paint. He opened up a lot not only for himself but his teammates as well. And he's definitely a threat down there, and he made some huge shots."
Celtics coach Doc Rivers has been trying to get Garnett more involved in the offense, especially in pick-and-rolls with Garnett going to rim after setting a screen.
Rivers noticed that Miami did more switching on the pick-and-roll with Garnett in Game 2 but didn't make the right adjustments. Rivers showed his team video of how Miami was defending Garnett. The Celtics took advantage of it in Game 3.
"One of things we keep telling them at the end of the day, 'Throw it up,' " Rivers said. "There's nobody taller than him on the floor. Throw it up in the air. Kevin will go get it."
Garnett made 10-of-16 shots, including 8-of-12 inside the paint - 7-of-11 at the rim. Boston outscored Miami 58-46 in the paint and outrebounded the Heat 44-32, areas of the game that are turning out to be keys to victory in this series.
"They established him deep in the paint," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We can do some things better in terms of getting him a step further out and trying to disrupt him a little bit on his catches, but he was able to get in a real good comfort zone."
Garnett had 12 points in the first half and was instrumental in Boston's third quarter. He had eight points as Boston stretched a 55-42 halftime lead to 85-63 after three quarters. It was a big enough gap to hold off Miami's fourth-quarter rally.
Garnett is averaging team-highs in points (19.7) and rebounds (10.6) in the playoffs. He was Boston's leader in plus-minus (points scored vs. points scored against while a player is on the floor) during the regular season at plus-267. Point guard Rajon Rondo was next at 167.
It's even more dramatic in the playoffs - Garnett is a plus-157, and guard Avery Bradley (done for season after recent shoulder surgery) us next at plus-63, a huge difference in just a handful of playoff games.
Garnett's impact can't be measured in just points and rebounds. With Garnett on the bench for 14 minutes, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 17 points and shot 84.2% from the field, according to NBA.com. With Garnett on the court for 34 minutes, Boston outscored Miami by 10 points, and the Heat shot 37.9% from the field.
Garnett's teammate, reserve guard Keyon Dooling, is inspired. "Everything does, he makes me want to run through a wall," Dooling said.
What did Dooling think of the pushups?
"As an athlete you have to get yourself going," Dooling said. "You get knocked down, you don't want your opponent to see you vulnerable.
"KG plays a lot of mental games with himself. And with us."
A few news reporters around Dooling's locker chuckled.
Garnett wasn't laughing when he finally addressed reporters in the locker room, nearly 60 minutes after the game ended.
Still fired up, he extolled the virtues of the home crowd with expletive-laced compliment.
He's ready for Game 4.
"You've got to anticipate them making adjustments," he said. "We're going to make some adjustments. But the tenacity, the desperation has to be there."
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