BOSTON — The Philadelphia 76ers, who came very close to winning Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Celtics, managed to steal Game 2 Monday night, grabbing home-court advantage with an 82-81 victory.

Evan Turner hit a scoop shot after a tough drive down the lane with 40.4 seconds left and then helped ice the game with two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to give the Sixers the series-evening win.

Philadelphia, which blew a 13-point lead in losing Game 1, hit Boston with a 14-0 haymaker late in the third quarter Monday but failed to hold an eight-point fourth-quarter lead before rallying again. But Turner, Lou Williams and Jodie Meeks all hit a pair of free throws to offset long-bomb 3-pointers by Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett as the Celtics fell a point short.

Jrue Holiday led a balanced Philadelphia attack with 18 points, while Lavoy Allen came off the bench and was huge with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Allen had 17 points and Garnett 15 points and 12 rebounds. Paul Pierce, playing on an injured left knee, was 2-for-9 from the floor and scored just seven points.

The Celtics led by four and neither team was able to do much of anything when the Sixers suddenly caught fire in what had been a dreadful third quarter. They took a 10-point lead with their burst before Pierce hit two free throws with 2.8 seconds left in the quarter.

Philadelphia, leading by eight after three, went cold, and the Celtics regained the lead on an Avery Bradley 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:22 left.

Bradley, already bothered by a left rotator cuff injury, aggravated the injury in the first half, left but returned for the fourth quarter. He was a key contributor down the stretch.

Philadelphia coach Doug Collins, seeing the Celtics get off to a 9-0 start (4-for-4 from the floor and four assists), called a timeout to try to get his players into the game.

It worked.

The Sixers scored their first points 2:27 into the game and trailed by only four at the end of the first quarter, after getting as close as two points. They took their first lead of the game, 29-27, on a Spencer Hawes jumper, but the Celtics then reeled off six straight points, the last two on an alley-oop pass from Rajon Rondo to third-string center Ryan Hollins.

In the first quarter, Rondo did the same thing with backup center Greg Stiemsma.

Up 33-29, the Celtics scored only five points over the ragged final 6:14 of the half, but three of them came on Pierce’s only basket of the half, with 3.1 seconds left. That gave Boston a two-point lead at the break.

Notes

Boston’s Mickael Pietrus revealed before the game he will need surgery on right knee during the offseason, but that won’t keep him from playing in the playoffs. “They need to clean out some of the tissue in there,” he said. “It is hurting a little bit, not as much as it used to. It can wait.”

... Boston coach Doc Rivers on the importance of Game 2: “I just think each game is a beast of its own and you just focus on that game. Game 1 was the most important game, now Game 2 is. You look at the other side of it, they’re looking at they’d like to get both; they didn’t, so they want to get one.” ... Collins when asked pre-game about stopping Garnett: “You’re not going to stop Kevin Garnett. What you would like to do is protect the paint. He had eight points in the paint the other night. If we can keep him out of the paint and make him take long jump shots, hopefully he won’t shoot as well as he has before.” ... Former Celtic fan favorite and current Bull Brian Scalabrine was at the game doing some local television work. ... A pre-game on-court announcement introduced the plans for the Bill Russell statue to be installed at City Hall Plaza.