It took 81 regular-season games, three straight playoff losses to the Knicks and 51:28 of a win-or-get-swept Game 4, but Jason Terry finally made true on his season-long promise to show up when it mattered most for the Celtics. With less than two minutes remaining in overtime, Terry took an outlet pass from Jeff Green up the left side, saw only former Mavericks teammate Jason Kidd between him and the basket, and pulled up for 3 in transition. "He's a fighter," said Kidd. "He's not going to give up. I've seen it up close." Terry's triple snapped an 88-88 tie, and afterCarmelo Anthony cut the Celtics' lead to one, Terry answered with a fadeaway jumper from the right side. Two free throws and a layup that drove the final nail in the Game 4 coffin gave Terry the C's last nine points in the final 92 seconds of a 97-90 season-saving win. "That transition 3 is something he works on all the time," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "And you knew once he got it what

For me, Marathon Monday has always been the day I was born. Now, it’s the day Martin Richard, two others and probably more died. On April 21, 1980, as Rosie Ruiz rode the subway to her short-lived Boston Marathon victory, my mother brought me into the world at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where 31 victims of Monday’s cowardly bombings are being treated. Our family lived on the Marathon route. We handed water to runners. “Here,” my brother John said. “Thank you,” a man in his 70s replied. John turned to our parents. “I just had a conversation with Johnny Kelley!” When my mother told Johnny the story years later, he jokingly said with that star-spangled twinkle in his eye: “Tell him I remember.” Moments like this forged a bond between two communities -- Boston and marathoners -- who share a common resolve. When we moved an hour from the Boston area, the Marathon always called us back. My mother and I remember the 100th

Almost every question Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce faced before Tuesday’s Celtics practice hinged on developing consistency before the playoffs. “Consistency in this league is the difference between good teams and bad teams,” said Garnett, who claimed his ailing foot felt “good” two days after playing his first game in two weeks. “Consistent teams that know their system, run their system and know what they're doing every night -- those are usually the teams that are doing very well in our league. Teams that go away or stray from what their systems are usually are the teams that struggle.” But consistency went out the window for this team when Rajon Rondo suffered his season-ending injury. The loss of Jared Sullinger, who actually shot free throws prior to Tuesday’s practice, didn’t help either. The C’s entered training camp with nine players who weren’t on the team in 2011-12, and they’ll begin the playoffs with four

"There's no evidence he's actually any good." -- John Hollinger on Jeff Green, October 2012 Is it OK to say Jeff Green is actually good at basketball now? Or does anyone who sees value in him still face ridicule from NBA statheads who insisted he wasn't worth the Celtics uniform that fit his 6-foot-9, 235-pound frame? Just about every knowledgeable national NBA writer roundly blasted Celtics president Danny Ainge's decision to re-sign Jeff Green this past summer for four years and $36 million. Hollinger, a former ESPN.com columnist and current vice president of the Grizzlies, was chief among them, asking, "Can they amnesty Green yet?" "I can't stress this enough: Green is 26 and played four full seasons in the league, and after all that time there's no evidence he's actually any good and considerable evidence that he's a health risk," wrote Hollinger, who developed the game's Player Efficiency Rating. "Yet he's being paid like a second-tier star.