The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat 121-108 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, making the series 3-2 and keeping alive their hopes of making the Finals.

After their 112-109 loss in Game 4, Boston faced a win-or-go-home situation. Their players were basically fighting with desperation on the court.

The color of that desperation went even thicker in the first half of Friday's game. Duncan Robinson, whom Boston tried the hardest to limit in the previous four games, went 6-9 to get 17 points in the first half. His explosion was unreasonable as Robinson not only drilled three triples but also scored by charging the rim.

By contrast, Boston watched Kemba Walker commit three fouls and Jayson Tatum miss six of his nine attempts during the same period. The team sent their clutch-five – Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Tatum and Gordon Hayward – early in the first quarter but that did not save their disappointing offense.

In the previous four games, Boston lost by 17 points in total in the second half. Therefore, when they finished the first half trailing 60-51, you could tell how difficult the situation was to the team.

If there was any comforting news for Stevens, it must be the fact that Enes Kanter, who only played 15 minutes in two of the previous four games, managed to stay on the court for 10 minutes without becoming a lethal loophole in defense. Moreover, he also scored eight points, four rebounds and two assists.

There's no telling what Stevens told his players in the locker room during the halftime break, but when his players stepped back to the floor, they seemed to find their solution: making the game simple by speeding up.

The two steals by Smart and Brown could not explain all the efforts by Boston to drive for transition. Since they did not have what it takes to break Miami's zone defense, Boston decided not to give the opponents enough time to set up their defense at all. Early offense made it easier for Boston to score and led to foul trouble of Miami. Both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were called for their fourth fouls in the third quarter. When these two were not on the court, Miami's defensive weak links Robinson and Tyler Herro were exposed even more to Boston's firepower.

Tatum and Brown dominated the second half for Boston. The former was 4-6 and made seven free throws to score 17 points and six rebounds in the third quarter; the latter went 5-7 to get 12 points in the fourth quarter. Daniel Theis was liberated in the second half and he had 11 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks during that period.

That's how Boston outscored Miami 70-50 in the second half, including scoring 41 points in the third quarter.

"I just thought we played with great tenacity defensively, and our offense followed suit. But (the Heat are) very hard. ... Like, it's easy for me to sit up here to say to be at our very best and get stops on every possession," said Stevens.

"Everybody was so anxious, eager to make a play, make something happen. We know what's at stake: We lose and go home. But at the same time, we've got to relax a little bit. Take a deep breath. We know how important every possession is, but we've still got to just relax a little bit and play the game, and that was kind of the message at halftime," said Tatum.

"We were playing a little bit fast, a little bit antsy. We were trying to win the game in the first half. And we just needed to stay with it, keep making the right play and just settle down a little bit. When we did, the shots started going in. Our defensive intensity was good. We gave up less baskets in the third quarter. And we looked like the team we all know and love," said Brown.

Miami should be alerted, not just by this loss, but also by the fact that their 3-point shooting continued to get worse in the series. From Game 1 to Game 5, the team's tiples made and 3-point rate were: 16, 44.44 percent (G1), 14, 32.56 percent (G2), 12, 27.27 percent (G3), 10, 27.03 (G4), and 7, 19.44 percent (G5).

3-pointers were as important as give and go in Miami's offense. Their 3-2 series lead will be shaky if they cannot restore that weapon. Remember, the Denver Nuggets made coming back from trailing 3-1 sound not so impossible anymore this season.