The proud Boston Celtics put it all together in the second half Friday night

Pride, that’s what the winningist professional basketball team, the wearers of the green  called on Friday night to survive the Eastern Conference finals, and will now need two more wins to advance to the National Basketball Association finals against the Western Conference champions.

Down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to the 5th-seeded Miami Heat, 3rd-seeded Boston sliced the deficit to 3-2 with a strong second half that brought an impressive 121-108, success at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Perhaps Celtics head coach Brad Stevens deserves some credit for his team’s turnaround after losing games one and two and four. But he begs to differ.

“We didn’t have that much of a first half,” Stevens said, “and at halftime, I didn’t say much, just informed the guys that I’m leaving it to them to have their own team discussion, talk of what they need to do to stay alive in the playoffs, with the emphases on the second half, and then I left to speak with the other coaches.”

Obviously, whatever Stevens said lit a spark, Trailing 26-18 after one quarter and 58-51 at the half, Boston put together 41-point third quarter to grab a 92-83 advantage heading into the final quarter and maintaining it to the final buzzer by outscoring Miami 69-50 in the second half. When the game ended, the Celtics appeared to be releasing collective deep breaths. Probably Stevens, too.

Both teams had six players scoring in double figures, with Jason Tatum tossing in the team-high 31 points, taking down 10 rebounds, and handing out six assists. Jaylen Brown was right behind with 28 points that included 4-of-10 3s. Daniel Theis added 15 points and the team-high 13 rebounds. Kemba Walker turned in 15 points and was 3-for-6 from 3-point range, while Marcus Smart tallied a dozen points, grabbed eight rebounds, had the team-high eight assists, and Gordon Hayward contributed 10 points.

Boston had more steals, 7-3, more assists, 29-27, more rebounds, 50-38,  and less turnovers, 18-12. It shot 45.3 from the field, 79.3 from the foul line, and made good on 12-of-38 3s.

For the Heat, it was a good first half that was outplayed over the last two quarters. Goran Dragic came up with the team-high 23 points to go with four rebounds and the same number of assists. Duncan Robinson scored 20 that included 3-of-11 3s, Jimmy Butler tallied 17 points, Tyler Herro and Jae Crowley 14 each, and Ray Adebayo scored 13. Miami was 86.2 from the charity stripe and  45.2 from the field.

The teams play again Monday night. MIami tries again to win the conference and advances to its first NBA since 2014. Boston will again play to survive. It was last in the NBA final in 2010 when it lost to the Lakers.

As for the Lakers, this is a season they has dedicated to the late Kobe Bryant, and are in quest in gaining the finals for the first time in a decade. They are the top-seed, lead the 3rd-seeded Denver Nuggets, 3 games to 1, with game five tonight. Denver has gone back-to-back in the conference playoffs with 3-1 deficits, the first against the 5th-seeded Utah Jazz followed by doing the same versus the 2nd-seeded Los Angeles Clippers.

Long-time Celtic and Laker fans are no doubt longing for their teams to meet for the 13th time in the NBA finals, with this LA franchise second in championship wins to Boston. But, don’t forget, the Nuggets and Celtics haven’t been eliminated yet.