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Pierce Steps Up Again, Leads Celtics To Finals
In 2002, Paul Pierce, the fourth-year player, was two wins away from the NBA Finals when the Celtics lost Game 6 to the New Jersey Nets. In Game 6 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals, history seemed eager to repeat itself. With Boston down 10 points to the Detroit Pistons in the fourth quarter and a championship berth teetering in the balance, the dream was fading all over again.
Paul Pierce, the veteran, would not let that happen.
"Being in that position six years ago and letting it slip away, I didn't want it to slip away again," he said.
With the same closer's poise he showed in scoring 41 on Cleveland in Game 7 of the second round, Pierce took hold of the dream and shook it out of the Piston's hands until it became his -- materializing as an 89-81 victory. The Captain scored 12 of his 27 points during the Celtics' 29-11 fourth-quarter sprint, finalizing his long-awaited date with his first NBA Finals and, suitably, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
"I could write a whole book on my emotions right now," Pierce said in his postgame press conference. "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."
Pierce matched Bryant's dominating late-game performance in the Lakers closeout win step for step, reaching the line 11 times in the fourth. But it was when Pierce reached the line off the dribble that he made the most pivotal play of the game, escaping a Pistons double-team with a pirouetting spin-move that began at the stripe and ended with a diving and-one finish that handed the Celtics the permanent lead.
"He did a great job of imposing his will," Kevin Garnett said, also heading to his first NBA Finals. "He was just huge for us all series when we needed him."
In the second half, Pierce seemed to be on the verge of repeating his masterpiece Game 7 performance after scoring six points in the first half of the third quarter. But his momentum was temporarily halted by a questionable whistle.
With the Celtics down five after a Detroit run, Pierce, standing beyond the arc on the left wing, got his defender in the air with an up fake, drew the contact, and somehow made the triple as he fell backwards. The Palace of Auburn Hills was silenced until the call was revealed to be an offensive foul. Tayshaun Prince would get two free throws on the other end to complete a six-point swing.
In years past, the turn of events might have shattered Pierce, but the wisdom gained since he last came this close to playing for the title helped him brush it off and come back stronger.
"I was just going to get back and suck it up and try to get it back," Pierce said. "I didn't let it frustrate me like probably in the past. I probably would have lost my poise, lost my cool, got a technical. But that would have been selfish of me and taking away from the team."
Instead, he gave them everything. Once the final buzzer made everything a reality, Pierce embraced the coach with whom he endured a 24-58 season last year in a walking headlock.
"'I'm glad they stuck with us.' That's what Paul said," Rivers said. "He said, he loved me, and then he said, 'Thank you for sticking with me,' and I was thinking, 'Me with you.' I was thinking the other way around.'"
The coach had the right idea. Before Rivers, before the '07 lottery, the Allen and Garnett trades, the 66 wins and consecutive Game 7s, there was Pierce. It's the Truth that stuck with the Celtics for the "ten long years" he spoke of after the game, and it's only fitting that the player who endured it all finished off the penultimate step to the final goal.
"In the times when all the stars, when their team gets bad, they want to bail, they want to get traded, Paul re-upped," Rivers said. "He stayed with us. To me, that means a lot, and I said that when he did it. So he deserves this, he really does."
