"Doug Collins was merely stating the obvious prior to tonight's game when he talked about the odd flow of this series — the fact that the team with the big early lead lost each time, and the team that won the third quarter won the game.

As it turned out, the Philadelphia coach was talking about the Celtics. But even Collins couldn't have predicted that it would take Brandon Bass' greatest night as a Celtic to spark the Green's 101-85 Game 5 win at the Garden for a 3-2 conference semifinals edge over the 76ers.

The Celtics forward, like his teammates a victim of the first-half doldrums, erupted with an 18-point third quarter that pushed the C's into a lead they would hold for the rest of the night. He finished with 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting and a 9-for-10 performance from the line."