Celtics play an inspiring tune

A championship remains unlikely and the reality remains unchanged, and yet the Celtics continue to plod along, almost defiantly, entirely undeterred. Most people look foolish when repeatedly running into a wall. The Celtics look like the model of determination.

One way or another, there will be another basketball game played at the TD Banknorth Garden this season, a fact cemented by the Celtics’ improbable 92-88 win over the unraveling Orlando Magic last night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. For 40 minutes of this game, the Celtics looked downright punch-drunk. They had no legs, no spunk, no spirit. And if that is how the last days of this season were to play out, with Kevin Garnett in a suit and the Celtics all but in a coma, the simple truth is that we would not have had a single complaint.

But this?

This is downright inspiring.

"Our team, they believe in each other. They’re very close," coach Doc Rivers said after the Celtics grabbed a 3-2 lead over the inaptly named Magic. "All the experience from last year has helped this year. We’re not the team we were last year. We’re a different basketball team. We’re not just going to show up and beat teams.

"We’ve got to grind any win we can get,’’ Rivers added. "We’re grinding here. I don’t know if people appreciate the minutes these guys are going, the legs."

We appreciate them, Doc. We appreciate them probably more than we say or more than you know. The Celtics now have played a stunning 202 regular season and postseason games since the start of last season, a number that does not include preseason games, practice time, travel days. They are 151-51, a precise 100 games over .500. Most incredible of all, the Celtics seemingly want to forge on, despite the fact they are on a collision course with the freight train known as the Cleveland Cavaliers.

For a moment, let’s divest ourselves emotionally and admit something that should be obvious to anyone with half a brain: if the Celtics and Cavaliers begin a seven-game series today, as currently constituted, the Celtics will get annihilated. Extending the series to six games would be a moral victory. At this stage, there are only two ways the Celtics beat the Cavs: if Garnett plays or if LeBron James does not.

All of that only makes this Celtics postseason compelling if for no other reason than, from the very beginning, they have had every right to quit. Based on the Game 1 performance against Chicago in the first round, the Celtics entertained thoughts of doing so. That was when Rivers waved off any more questions about Garnett and all but appealed to his team’s sense of pride, at which point the Celtics began a string of games that has been downright exhausting.

And so here they are now, one win from the Eastern Conference finals despite the absence of Garnett, Leon Powe and anything really to prove. The Celtics already are champions. They are tired, battered, and bruised. A longer offseason would benefit them far more than a shorter one, and yet the Celtics continue to march on solely because it is the right thing to do.

See? It’s not always about winning sometimes. It is about the journey as much as it is about the destination. It is about maximizing potential, exploiting all opportunity, about setting an example for how things should be done.

At the moment, every parent should be holding up these Celtics as a model.

"It just worked out the way it’s supposed to work out,’’ said Paul Pierce, the Celtics captain. "We’re a team that’s never going to give in. It’s been that way since the playoffs started last year and this year.’’

Last night, along with Kendrick Perkins, Pierce was the glue that kept the Celtics together. Without him, the C’s might have lost by 20. In 40 minutes, despite facing a succession of double teams and more, Pierce made one good decision after the next. He finished with 19 points (on 6 of 11 shooting), 9 rebounds, and 8 assists while going a perfect 7 of 7 from the free throw line. He made two steals and did not commit a turnover. On a night when Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, and Glen Davis played key roles in a dramatic finish, Pierce quietly kept the Celtics afloat by pulling them from the collar.

But then, what are these Celtics if not an extension of their coach and captain, who methodically labored through their first years together with little or no hope. Those Celtics had no real reason to play, either. They seemingly had no chance to win. But those Celtics always played it out to the often bitter end, night after night, a more revealing testament to their perseverance than we possibly could have understood at the time.

"We’re not the prettiest team, guys -- clearly,’’ said Rivers, who was screaming so loudly at his players during the middle of the third quarter last night that he literally could be heard in the uppermost reaches of the Garden. "But we’re grinders. We just grinded this game out. They could have quit a few times and they didn’t. We had to get on 'em a little bit. You have to do that sometimes, but they did it."

As a result, in the latter stages of a very long season, the Celtics invoked the first rule of competition.

No matter what, keep playing.

Keep playing until someone tells you that you cannot.