PHILADELPHIA – Kevin Garnett was agitated, which is nothing new, but his words hung heavy in the crushing disappointment of a losing locker room. They carried with them the weight of a season’s worth of expectations, if not an entire era.

“After [Game 2] I came in and just said, ‘We’re not going to beat anybody -- jayvee teams or high school teams -- if we were not going to play together,” Garnett said. “We’ve worked so hard to get to where we’re at and we got there together. Ubuntu -- we’ve been preaching that since I’ve been here. I had to just remind the guys, including the younger guys, show the new guys on how we succeed here. And the creed -- Celtics basketball -- and what we are here. I just had to reiterate that.”

The Celtics have been living on the edge throughout the playoffs, grinding out tough victories with little margin for error. This was the night they took out their opponents’ heart and crushed it into fine powder. But this wasn’t about Philly, a tough, resilient team in its own right. This was about them.

“I really believe we needed this game,” Rajon Rondo said. “I thought we responded well tonight. It wasn’t just me. It was everyone. We all were pretty focused today in shootaround. Obviously we had two close games at home. We wanted to show these guys – send a message tonight -- and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

The Celtics were angry after Monday’s game. The anger gave way to determination on the plane and the determination eventually came around to focus. Garnett more than lived up to his words in Game 3 as the Celtics rolled to a 107-91 victory in their most dominant performance in a month.

Garnett’s numbers – 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting and 13 rebounds – don’t even come close to doing justice to his performance. Down seven to start the second quarter, the Celtics started feeding the beast. He kept it simple. Catch, ball fake, pivot, bang: turnaround jumpers on the block.

They went to him three straight times in the post and each time he scored. He scored on his first six shots of the quarter, all set up by an assist. It was a clinic and for all his ferocity, we were reminded yet again that Kevin Garnett is one of the most skilled players who has ever stepped foot on a basketball court.

“He was really upset after [Game 2] because he didn’t think we played the right way as a team,” Doc Rivers said. “If you know Kevin, it’s all about doing things right for the team.”

Rondo played a brilliant floor game. He attacked early, scoring 13 points before registering his first assist. Once that was established, he dropped 14 assists on the beleaguered Sixers, who by that point had no idea whether he was coming for the kill or the surgical dissection. This was Rondo at his precise best, as evidenced by one solitary turnover. 

“He was slashing. He was getting to the cup,” Keyon Dooling said. “I think people were starting to play him more for his pass. He had to remember how good a scorer he is in the paint, how creative he is going to the basket. When Rondo’s aggressive he can still make the passes, but when he’s looking to be aggressive it just adds a different dimension to his game.”  

Paul Pierce missed his first six shots. He thought he was fouled on many of them and may have been right. Then something clicked and he viciously attacked the basket, sending home a thunderous dunk complete with a backboard slap that reverberated in the din. Then he did it again. From that point on, Pierce lived at the free throw line. He took 14 foul shots – five more than the Celtics took as a team in Game 2.

“Paul is just a grinder,” Rivers said. “You look at him at times and wonder, ‘How is this guy getting open?’ He just has great fundamentals. He never does it with speed. He just knows how to play basketball. He’s just a throwback guy and he knows how to play basketball.”

Garnett, Pierce and Rondo took 50 of their 77 shots, scored 74 of their 107 points, grabbed 31 of their 44 rebounds and had 22 of their 26 assists. You can talk all you want about the supporting cast. When two of those three play well, the Celtics generally win. When all three have great games, they’re basically unbeatable.

“We did it the right way,” Rivers said. “I thought we did it through execution. We did it through space. I thought the first two games especially we tried to do it, but we did it [through] random and our spacing was poor. We also did it through posting the ball early. We post Paul up early and we post Kevin up early and that’s the right way to play.”

There were other, more subtle adjustments. Rivers went to his smaller lineup earlier in the game and it helped open up the floor. Rondo said they put in a couple of new sets at shootaround to establish the post. They also changed up their defense on the side pick and rolls that had given them trouble in the first two games, an observation made by intrepid reporter Brian Scalabrine.

They went with what is commonly called “ice,” where the defending guard rejects the screen by angling the ballhandler to the baseline, a technique they picked up from watching Scalabrine’s Bulls defend Philly in the first round.

“I like it better,” Rondo said. “I don’t think they did.”

After a hot start, the Sixers shot 41 percent. Evan Turner made only one of his 10 shots and the pick and pops from Philly’s big men were a non-factor. The Celtics outscored the Sixers, 61-33, in the two middle quarters, a stark contrast from the 36-24 differential they had in Game 2.

This was the Celtics at their best. They played with an edge. They played smart. They once again have control of the series.

“They came and hit us in our mouth on our homecourt,” Dooling said. “That didn’t leave a good taste in our mouth. We did a good job of bouncing back and making a statement.”