FanHouse GlenDavis

What started this season as a chest-thumping NBA title defense is turning into an even more impressive testament to seat-of-the-pants resiliency and steely resolve.

The Big Three is long gone. The Gang of Unwanted has kept this one alive.

As it turns out, Glen Davis is not a Big Baby. He is a Magnanimous Man. And he's more magnanimous than I could ever be under the circumstances.

To be sure, what the husky 6-9, 289-pound Boston Celtics' forward did early Tuesday, two days after hitting the buzzer-beating shot in Orlando to even his team's playoff series with the Magic at two wins apiece, was absolutely unnecessary. Davis apologized for running into a 12-year-old boy, ensconced in Magic gear and seated courtside, as Davis turned to run to his team's bench to celebrate the biggest shot of his career.

When the Boston Celtics first assembled the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, they essentially told untested young point guard Rajon Rondo to just stay out of the way.

Today, they are asking him to lead the way.

Rondo, 23, has progressed so rapidly and so impressively this season that he has gone from a role-playing afterthought in their championship run of 2008 to the key in their surprisingly-stubborn defense of a title in 2009.

"You could say my role has changed a little,'' Rondo said earlier this week. "People look to me more. I'm being asked, and expected, to do more. And I like that.''

By now, you've no doubt seen this game-winning shot by the Celtics' Glen "Big Baby" Davis a number of times. But did you notice the kid he inadvertently made contact with on his way back down the floor afterwards?

The child's father certainly saw the contact, and he wasn't at all happy about it. So, he's now trying to grab his 15 minutes of fame by demanding an apology from Davis for "shoving" his 12-year-old son. And it's absolutely pathetic.

There's too much going on in the NBA playoffs right not to try to touch on every series. Let's take a look ahead to Monday's games, as well as a look back at Sunday's games ...

-- It's really too bad that Game 3 of the Dallas-Denver series had to be decided the way it did, with the officials missing an intentional foul and allowing Carmelo Anthony to hit a game-winning 3-pointer.

But now on Monday we're really going to find out about the Mavericks, and it could go a long way toward whether they're completely dismantled this offseason. Do the Mavericks have a little Houston in them?

ORLANDO -- You can call him big, you can call him fat, you can call him a crybaby. Around Orlando they were even calling him a child abuser Sunday night.

There's one thing, however, that you can't call Big Baby Davis.

Choker.

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ORLANDO -- No one said it was going to be easy without Kevin Garnett. But no one said they couldn't do it, either.

The Celtics won back the home-court advantage that they lost in Boston last week -- much like they did in their first-round series against Chicago -- and very much kept their long-shot hope of repeating alive.

That Celtic pride bubbled up again, fighting off another serious challenge to their NBA title defense.

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A shockingly dominant first half performance. A near collapse. A clanker of Game 2. A suspended point guard. This the Orlando Magic.

A pathetic shot out of the gate. A determined second-half rebound. A dominant Game 2 performance, start to finish. Swagger. Determination. A ring. These are the Boston Celtics.

As we head to Game 3 in Orlando of this seven game series, things are coming to a head. Games 1 and 2 were largely feeling one another out. And if you're a Magic fan, that process did not come out the way you'd have preferred. So what are we looking at in Game 3?

FanHouse previews every round of the NBA Playoffs.

It took longer than we thought it would, but here we are. The upstart, high powered, trigger-happy Magic versus the battle-tested, battle-weary, battle-loving Celtics. And the winner takes on the King for a chance at the crown (assuming Atlanta aren't actually members of C.O.B.R.A.). The Celtics just got through a brutal seven-game series with Chicago (you may have heard about it on the news programs), and the Magic just shook off the cobwebs and downed Philly without Dwight Howard. All signs point to a changing of the guard. But as we've come to expect with this Celtics team, it doesn't take lightly to plans being made without their say so. Comes with that whole "defending champs" things.

Calling Game 6 of Bulls-Celtics epic is a vast understatement. The game was completely unbelievable. As in, if you didn't see it, you wouldn't believe everything that happened actually happened. I don't doubt trying to dissemble the game into mere memories will drive some fans mad with anxiety and frustration.

The Bulls ended up victorious after four hours of battle with the defending champs. This series had already tied the NBA record for most overtime periods in a series ... before tonight's triptych of extra frames. And for each overtime, there was a mess of incredible and unforgettable plays.

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