There was Marquis Daniels, a forgotten man for most of the season, guarding Dwyane Wade with the Celtics’ season, for all intents and purposes, on the line. Just Daniels and Wade at the top of the key. A superstar if ever there was one and a player who was never a part of the rotation.

Wade faked, and that got Daniels off his feet, but in a sly move Daniels jumped to the side instead of straight at Wade to avoid a foul.

“At some point I knew he was going to get [the shot] up, I was just like, man,” Daniels said. “When he did get it up, it seemed like forever.”

Wade’s shot was on line, but it bounced harmlessly off the rim. “Red wasn’t going to let that go in, you know that,” Doc Rivers said. “Not in the Boston Garden.”

When it finally hit the ground the Celtics had evened the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece with a 93-91 overtime victory that was as bizarre as anything they’ve put together in a season that stopped making sense sometime around April.

For one half, the most inefficient offensive team in the playoffs couldn’t miss. Everything the Celtics threw at the basket found the bottom of the net. Playing his best game of the series, Paul Pierce had 18 points, and his longtime collaborator on the wing, Ray Allen, had 11. Brandon Bass scored nine points and had six rebounds. Kevin Garnett added nine points and eight rebounds.

And Rajon Rondo? He had the ball on a string and the world at his fingertips, unspooling one sublime pass after another. For 10 quarters and an overtime, Rondo has never played this well.

“Yeah, he’s good,” Rivers said. “That’s what he is now, when you think about it. He’s just a good basketball player. Great basketball player. And now he’s consistent. That’s when you cross the line, when you’re no longer inconsistent.”

For 24 minutes it was a massive party with the edgiest and liveliest crowd of the season calling for more, but as the second half began even the crowd seemed worn out by the pace. It couldn’t last. Offense like that is never sustainable in a basketball game, let alone the conference finals.

The offense deserted them, the foul trouble mounted, and then it turned into a battle for survival. Every possession seemed like a late round in a boxing match when both fighters have nothing left but keep throwing punches anyway just to see if they’ll connect. The lead began to shrink, not in the usual Miami manner of thunderbolts and lightning, but in a slow, steady erosion.

“We were really unorganized, guys,” Rivers said. “I thought we were unorganized the whole second half. I thought it was us at the beginning of the third quarter. We came out and tried to throw knockout punches with quick 3’s, transition, never-ran stuff. Our execution in the first half was flawless. It was as good as maybe we’ve had, and we got completely away from it. We really did. Then I thought Miami just got into us. I thought they physically got into our airspace and took us out of everything.”

Somehow, the Celtics pulled it off. Somehow they’re still alive. They’ve done this before, of course, but never quite like this, with Pierce fouling out and Rivers running Garnett on and off the court just to give him a minute here and a rest there.

With Daniels and Mickael Pietrus on the floor in the overtime, the Celtics were playing 3-on-5 offensively, and Rondo told Garnett it was time: “We have to take over.” Only they couldn’t. They scored only four points in the overtime, but it was enough.

They’ve never had to win a playoff game of this magnitude with Daniels guarding Wade on the final possession, Pietrus crashing the glass for offensive rebounds and Keyon Dooling draining corner 3’s.

“It’s kind of similar to [2008],” Rondo said. “It’s not the superstars that get all the praise --€‘ well, they do get all the praise, but the guys like the P.J. Browns, the [James] Poseys. It’s similar to what we’re doing this year.”

They’ve called it grit and balls. Resilience, determination, all that stuff that makes for great headlines but generally goes in one ear and out the other. Grit can’t make a jump shot, after all. But what if they truly believe it? What if through everything the Celtics truly believe in each other and what they’re trying to accomplish? 

“Everybody sticks together, regardless of what it looks like out there, how things may be going,” Daniels said. “We always stay together. We’re a tight group of guys in here. We’re like brothers. We’re going to always have each other’s backs when one goes down.

“We’re around each other probably more than we’re around our wives,” he continued. “If you get beat, someone will have your back. If one of your teammates falls down, run and pick him up. It builds camaraderie. It helps you out knowing someone has your back out there.”

There’s a tendency to think of the Celtics in one continuous uninterrupted string. Pierce, Garnett, Rondo and Allen -- throw Rivers in there, too -- have become as familiar as the view from the Longfellow Bridge from the Red Line. We know them and understand their story. This is it, probably, and their struggle to maintain what has been the most fulfilling years of their career is both noble and inspiring.

But this Celtics team needs to be seen for what it is, in this moment. Through all their injuries and flaws -- and this is by far the most flawed team that’s been assembled in this era -- they really are as together as any of them.

No one can be sure how it happened. Maybe it was the short season. Maybe it was the injuries or the slow start. There are real, tangible reasons for their success: Garnett’s move to center, Avery Bradley’s emergence, Rondo’s undeniable brilliance. But the intangible can’t be ignored, either.

Somehow they’ve turned this series into a game-to-game, minute-by-minute contest of adjustments, counters and sheer will.

“This series is probably as unconventional as any series I’ve been a part of,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And probably as much as I’ve seen both teams making adjustments game to game, both teams have had to go through a lot of adversity through this series. We’re reinventing ourselves daily.”

Maybe that’s what truly is at the bottom of this whole thing. While the Heat are once again trying to figure out who they are, the Celtics have known themselves this whole time.