Last year's Eastern Conference Finals were far from over when the Celtics fell behind 0-2 in Miami

On May 30th of last year Rajon Rondo played the game of his life.  But it wasn't enough, and the Celtics lost Game 2 of the Conference Finals to the Heat, 115-111 in OT.  That put the C's in an 0-2 hole heading back to Boston.  I'll be the first to admit, I had given up.  After watching one of the greatest individual performances I'd ever seen come up just short, I assumed there was no way the Celtics could recover.  But they went home and won Game 3, then managed to squeak out an OT victory in Game 4 at the Garden as well.  The series returned to Miami, where against all odds Paul Pierce hit one the dagger-iest dagger 3's you'll ever see, putting Boston up three games to two.

Yes, the Celtics lost that series.  Yes they got torched by LeBron's insane 19-26 shooting in Game 6 in Boston.  But they also led 82-81 with eight minutes to go in the 4th quarter on the road in Game 7.  Boston was just 8 minutes away from the NBA Finals only 10 days after all hope had seemingly been lost when they fell behind 0-2.  

I realize this is not last year's team.  But nobody thought they could manage what they did a year ago either.  Nobody.

Follow Mark on twitter @LucidSportsFan