KG gets it done

NBA. Kevin Garnett has always been an easy target.

He’s a surefire Hall of Famer and has the league’s highest salary, commercial appeal and a number of nicknames. But as the best player on an endless amount of bad teams, it took him nine years to advance past the first round of the playoffs, and this will be just his second career trip to a conference semifinal.

Garnett was a postseason choke artist, his critics exclaimed, and those echoes were faintly heard through the Garden hallways over the last week. Even though he had averaged 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists through the series’ first six games, the Celtics were losing, and some of the blame was put on Garnett’s shoulders.

Sure, he wasn’t always aggressive, had been unselfish to a fault and failed to take over at times when the Celtics were struggling at Atlanta’s Philips Arena despite averaging 24.7 points in three road losses.

But in the series’ decisive game yesterday, Garnett was unconscious, attacking the rim and scoring 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting while grabbing 11 rebounds, including four on the offensive end, in 27 minutes of work.

This wasn’t KG 2.0. Rather, it was simply a stronger performance from a man who wouldn’t be heading home after the first round for a seventh time.

“Through adversity, you have to continue to keep your head up, stay positive and lead by example,” Garnett said.

“That’s big when you’re trying to accomplish what we’re trying to do this year.”