In 29 other NBA cities, the reaction to Kevin Garnett’s offensive foul with 10 seconds left in regulation was the same: They finally called it! In Boston, the difference was one of punctuation: They called it now?

No one can argue that Garnett did, in fact, clear out Andre Iguodala with his arm in an attempt to get Paul Pierce for a potential game-tying 3-pointer. The issue is whether there’s a difference between the first 47 minutes and the final one.

“I wasn’t fond of it. At all,” Doc Rivers said. “You know, I think Kevin got called for three off-the-ball offensive fouls. So clearly it looked like they were looking for it all night and they got three of them. If you’re going to tell me Kevin was the only one moving in picks tonight, then I’ll live with that. He clearly was not the only one, but he was the one who got the calls tonight. We put ourselves in that position. I say it all the time if you put yourself in a position to let someone else do something, then you can lose games and that's what happened."

For the record, Garnett was called for two offensive fouls and one defensive foul away from the ball, but something clearly was up because Garnett said that he had been warned about the way he was setting screens. For his part, Garnett took the high road.

“Mike [Smith] was in the position and he called it. I’m not going to make a big stink about it,” Garnett said. “I think Danny [Crawford] had already given me a warning about how I was setting the picks. I’m going to continue to set picks. I’m going to continue to get guys open. That wasn’t, to me, the game. Mike made a great call. I don’t really give it up to the refs, but he thought that was a moving pick. I just thought in that situation you let the players decide the game. He felt like it was an illegal pick and that’s what it is.”

Here’s the harder truth for the Celtics: Smith’s call wasn’t the deciding factor in their 82-81 loss. They shot 42 percent, didn’t get to the free throw line and gave up 11 offensive rebounds.

Throughout the playoffs, they have been living dangerously. They survived their notorious offensive dry spells against Atlanta because Joe Johnson and Josh Smith never made them pay for it. Tuesday night was different. Lavoy Allen conjured up memories of Trent Tucker with a turnaround jumper off the glass on an inbounds play with nine-tenths of a second left on the shot clock and Evan Turner hit a tough shot in the lane -- and maybe got away with a travel.

“They made two shots that were unbelievable,” Rivers said. “Allen makes that bank shot with .9 -- that was a long .9, I must say -- and then Evan Turner made a miraculous shot. But again, when you put guys in position to make plays like that, you can lose games.”

Again, that’s on the Celtics, who scored 13 points in the second quarter and just 11 in the third. They shot 9-for-37 in those two quarters, and that’s where this game was lost.

“I wasn’t real happy or proud with the way we played offensively,” Rivers said. “It was not very good.”

Paul Pierce has not been himself. He was 2-for-9 in Game 2 and he’s missed 15 of his 20 shots in the series. He’s playing with a knee sprain that has clearly affected him, but give credit as well to Iguodala who is one of the elite wing defenders in the game.

Rajon Rondo had an odd game. He passed up open layups in the first quarter and never did find a rhythm offensively. Brandon Bass took 15 shots -- more than any other player on the team -- and while they were mostly good shots, that speaks to an unbalanced offensive distribution. Garnett was a monster in the fourth quarter, but it took that long for the Celtics to establish him in the post.

It certainly didn’t help matters that Avery Bradley, who was plus-18 in his time on the court, missed half of the second quarter and all of the third when his left shoulder popped out of place again. He’s the one player who can match Philly’s athleticism on the wing, and when he plays the Celtics are a more dynamic team.

Their offensive woes were encapsulated in a set with about two minutes left, when Rondo dribbled out the possession waiting for Allen to pop free on the wing. The Sixers forced him wide and Rondo was left to fire up a jumper that was partially blocked by Evan Turner.

Asked about it later, Rondo said he didn’t remember the set, which is highly implausible. But then, so are the delusions that the Celtics could simply show up and coast their way to the conference finals. They simply don’t have much margin for error anymore, a fact of life Rivers acknowledged.

“We knew that coming into this whole playoff run with the bodies we have,” Rivers said. “We’ve got guys going in and out of games. Paul is clearly not 100 percent. We’re not going to run away from anybody. Tonight I thought we honestly had a chance to, I really did. I thought if we had played the right way, we had a chance to do that, and we just didn’t.”

That’s what really stings about this loss, not the calls or the breaks that went against them. They had a 9-0 barely two minutes into the game and couldn’t deliver the knockout blow. The Sixers absorbed the punch and now have the look of a team that is playing free and easy above their weight class. 

“We played a home game in Game 1 where we stole the game,” Rivers said. “So, if you’re the other team you have to have a little confidence going in. That’s why I was so happy with the start of Game 2, and then we let that go.”