"It's nice and noble when the Big Ticket wants to be the Big Facilitator, but there are times when he can make you scream.

Pass, pass, pass. Pass up your own layup so someone else can take a contested 15-footer. Pass up a shot for your own Hall-of-Fame self so a less worthy teammate can take a shot. It can get maddening, all the more so when he does this in a playoff game.

But Kevin Garnett knew last night was different. He was already on record as saying that this Game 3 with the Heat, his team down, 0-2, was "the season,'' and so he must have decided it was time to make a substitution without even bothering to clear it with Doc Rivers."