Projo Sports Blog

BY ROBERT LEE
Journal Sports Writer

DETROIT –Paul Pierce wasn’t about to let his first chance to play in the NBA finals slip away from him.

And he wasn’t about to let Celtic Nation down in their hopes of seeing the Celtics play for the NBA title for the first time in 21 years.

So in the fourth quarter, which began with Detroit leading, 68-60, Pierce put the Celtics on his back and carried them to victory.

Pierce scored 12 of his team-high 27 points in the fourth quarter to lead Boston to a thrilling Game Six, Eastern Conference finals deciding series, 89-81, victory over Detroit at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

“I'm just happy to be a part of this, man,” said Pierce, who also had eight rebounds. “It's been a long process. I could write a whole book on my emotions right now. But I'm just happy to be in this position, still with the Boston Celtics. It makes me think about a year ago today what I was doing. To be in this position with the same team going to The Finals, it's nothing I can really put into words.”

The Celtics won the series, 4-2, and will meet the Los Angels Lakers in the NBA finals. Boston owns an 8-2 record over Los Angels in NBA championship meetings, but the Lakers won the last meeting, 4-2, in 1987.

“It means everything to Boston fans,” Pierce said of the Celtics playing the Lakers in the Finals.

“We have a big test ahead of us,” Boston forward Kevin Garnett said. “We know that the total goal is not done. But it feels good, feels real good.”

Said Boston coach Doc Rivers, “It's going to be fantastic. When we played them in LA earlier in the year, I thought the atmosphere was nuts in LA, and I told the guys after the game, boy, it would be great if we could see them again, and the only way we could have seen them again would be The Finals. That's the way it should be to me as far as I'm concerned.

“The Lakers won the West, they were the best team; we won the East, we were the best team, and now we get to play each other. And the history takes care of itself, just on the basketball part. I think the right two teams are playing each other.”

Ray Allen got Boston off to a good start by scoring 13 of his 17 points in the first half to help give Boston a three point halftime lead.

Along with Pierce, Kevin Garnett, who was also fighting to make his first trip to the NBA finals, also had a big second half. He scored 12 of his 16 points in the second session.

Trailing 68-60 after three quarters of play, and then 70-60 after Detroit guard Richard Hamilton knocked down an 18-foot jumper to start the championship fourth quarter, Boston went on a10-0 run to tie the game at 70-70 after a Pierce free throw with 7:35 remaining.

“I thought, this is 12 minutes, it's a tremendous opportunity, and I didn't want to let this slip away,” Pierce said. “It was right there, and Lord knows I didn't want to go back to Boston for another Game 7. I wanted to be a little more aggressive, but at the same time be smart. The shots were there, I was a little surprised at some of the open looks I got at the driving lanes, but hey, I took advantage of it. I just wanted to try to impose my will.

“Just being in this position six years ago and letting it slip away. I didn’t want to let it slip away again.”

The two teams battled back and forth exchanging buckets until Pierce put the Celtics ahead for good, 75-74, when he drove to the basket for a layup, got fouled, and then knocked down the free throw for the three-point play. Pierce followed that up with a fade away jumper and then he knocked down two free throws to extend Boston’s advantage to 79-74.

“Paul had a real good game,” Garnett said. “I thought he did a great job of imposing his will. I think he had a big three point play that was just huge for us. He was just huge for us all series when we needed him.”

Detroit never recovered from Pierce’s fourth quarter scoring outburst.

Detroit coach Flip Saunders said that he told his team that he was proud of them after the game.

“I just thank them for all their effort they had this past year,” Saunders said. “It's always tough when you don't reach your goals of where you want to get and you're close to getting there. But I guess, like I said I thanked them for their effort and their commitment.”

Detroit’s backcourt of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton were almost too much for Boston to overcome.

Billups, who began the series with an injured hamstring, put on his second consecutive dominating performance, this time finishing with 29 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds.
Hamilton, who was questionable before the game after he strained his right elbow on Wednesday in Game Five, put on a heroic performance with 21 points and 4 assists.

But it wasn’t enough.

The Celtics were able to contain Detroit’s other starters, Rasheed Wallace (4 points), Antonio McDyess (6 points) and Tayshaun Prince (10 points).

“I was just really proud of ourselves for fighting back and keeping their emotions,” Rivers said. “I guess if you’re going to go to The Finals, I don’t know if you could script a better way than the way we’re going.”

After holding Detroit to 38.2 percent shooting in the first half, the Celtics allowed the Pistons to knock down eight of their first 10 shots in the third quarter, the last of which, a 12-foot turnaround Rodney Stuckey jumper, gave the Pistons a 58-56.

Detroit extended that lead to 66-58 after two Prince free throws with 1:27 remaining in the quarter, but Pierce put on a courageous fourth quarter performance to rally the Celtics, negating Detroit’s 11-point third quarter swing.

“This is what we’ve been wanting for 20, 25 years of our life, when we started realizing we wanted to play basketball, and we watched other players come here and win games here and do the things that make history,” Allen said. “This is what we wanted; we’re here.”

roblee@projo.com / 401-277-7340

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