1+3=17

(Photo courtesy of Brian Babineau) The big story out of Boston was Paul Pierce's knee injury in the third quarter of game one. A game in which the Celtics defeated the Lakers 98-88. When Pierce went down, and stayed down the hopes of banner number 17 went down just like he did. But, after being carried off the court by Tony Allen and Scal and wheel chaired to the training room Pierce made a triumphant, and yes a Willis Reed-esque return. Especially once this series is over and we find out the true extent of this injury...and the worse the injury is, the bigger that moment will become. It'll be added to the videos of Celtics Lakers lore, of Magic's foul line hookshot and McHale tackling Rambis.

Some have gone so far is to suggest that Pierce faked the injury. Which in and of itself is absurd, if he wanted to sit out and get a rest certainly he could've just put up a fist or asked Doc to come out. IF he did fake the injury, a notion I strongly disagree with, then it's perhaps the greatest act a player has ever done to motivate his team. When Pierce jogged through that tunnel you just felt the atmosphere change, even from watching on TV. You could see guys on the bench literally jumping up and down they were so happy! Pierce went on to score 19 in the second half on 6-6 shooting including 3-3 from long range. A common misconception is that when Willis Reed returned for game 7 he went on to score 40. In fact he contributed only four points, the first two buckets of the game, but he, like Pierce realized what coming back out meant in terms of motivating his team.

Kevin Garnett tied Kobe Bryant with a game high 24, on 9-22 shooting. Pierce, wound up with 22, Ray Allen with 19, and Rondo 15. PJ Brown had only two points but his 6 rebounds (and his play in general) seem to always come up when they need it. Whether it be a big offensive board or just making sure the Lakers are one and done. Derek Fisher played solid for LA with 15, and got help from Pau Gasol with 15, and Lamar with 14.

Game two will be huge because for some reason the NBA finals switch to 2-3-2 series format, meaning games 3,4 and 5 will be in Los Angeles. As a result losing game two would create a giant mountain that the C's would have to overcome, winning multiple games in LA. You figure if they are up 2-0 going into LA they can hopefully leave up 3-2. It's hard to beat a team three times in a row, let alone the best team (record wise) in the league.

Be(a)st of the East

(photo courtesy of Gregory Shamus) The NBA has got their wish, a Lakers Celtics final. If it were Detroit vs. San Antonio, clearly the rating would be significantly less than with these two teams. It's a battle of east vs. west, blue collar vs Hollywood and most importantly a revival of the two most storied franchises in NBA history. It conjures memories of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and of course Bird Magic.

Additionally, there's literally nothing better than Kevin McHale taking out Kurt Rambis as seen below:




As far as the final game of this series, I think it was pretty evident this one would go down to the last couple minutes of play. The Celts expanded their lead with some free throws and secured the eastern conference championship with a 89-81 victory in Detroit. Paul Pierce, the longest tenured Celtic scored a team high 27 points on 8-12 shooting as well as 10-13 on free throws. KG struggled but still managed to get 16 points on the night (it's kind of funny that he struggled and still got 16 points, because that's still a solid total). Ray Allen showed that game five was not a one time thing with 17 points and shot 50% from the field. Perk had 7 and 7, and Rondo wound up with 11.

For Detroit Chauncy B-B-B-Billups had a game high 29, and Rip Hamilton showed his elbow injury was a non factor with 21 to help out. Unfortunately for them, they didn't receive a lot of help from their teammates, specifically Rasheed, Tayshaun and McDyess who combined for 20 points.

No doubt this was the biggest factor in the game, Rasheed had FOUR POINTS, and shot 3-12 including 0-6 from threes. They say some people have it when it comes to big games, apparently this former Tar Heel doesn't. The end result here is something probably needs to change in Motown because the Pistons can get to the Eastern Conference finals (5 consecutive years) but it's getting over the hump now-a-days that's the problem. Have Rasheed's anticts rubbed too many people the wrong way? Has Flip Saunders worn out his welcome? Only time will tell...

For Boston moving forward, their ability to limit Kobe Bryant won't be as important as making sure the other players don't go off. Pau Gasol vs. Kendrick will be a very tough match up (as KG will have to guard the versatile Lamar Odom). Luckily for the Celtics, I think having already played against Lebron they'll be able to use similar strategies on attempting to minimize what he gets. Look Kobe is MVP for a reason, and a future hall of famer, he took 30 shots in their clinching game over the Spurs, so he's going to get his. It's about limiting Derek Fisher and his 3 point shooting, making sure Pau Gasol doesn't get easy put backs and so on.

Game Time is 9:00 on Thursday at the TD Banknorth Garden

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