Get ready for the Celtics and the Lakers. Again.
"It means everything to Boston fans," said Paul Pierce after the Celts punched their ticket to The Finals. "To me, I think that's what pretty much got me started in basketball, growing up in Los Angeles, watching the Lakers and the Celtics. And it's ironic, just being a Celtic, growing up, now you're playing against the Lakers in The Finals. As a kid, I hated the Celtics. I'm going back home to play against my team that I grew up watching. "It's a dream come true, man, just thinking about it. I think that rivalry really revolutionized the game of basketball, and now I'm a part of it."
And the Celts say they'll be ready. They've certainly been taking the long way through these playoffs. Friday night was their 18th game in 35 days and 20th playoff game overall. But coach Doc Rivers doesn't believe his players are tired.
"I feel they look great," he said. "I mean, I haven't heard anyone talking about fatigue or anything like that.
"You know, during the playoffs you don't practice as much ... you do more prep stuff as far as walk-throughs, so you don't have that grind on your body. I think they're fine. This every-other-day routine has been good, very good for us, good flow for us. So, no, I don't think it's been a problem at all."
Rivers has taken to leaning on his regulars even more.
"You can do it more in the playoffs, obviously, because you have the day in between of rest and you're not really going hard in practices now," he said. "It's more adjustments. So you clearly can do it.
"As I told you before, the only guy I really have concern doing it multiple times would be Kevin (Garnett) because of the energy level that he plays at. Other than that, I think any of our other guys can handle it. Kevin would be the one guy that if I did it two games in a row, I would be concerned."
CELTICS 89, PISTONS 81: Paul Pierce scored 12 of his 27 points in the last quarter as the Celtics came back from a 10-point deficit Friday night in Auburn Hills to earn a place in the NBA Finals against the Lakers. The Pistons were eliminated, 4-2, as Boston won on the road for just the second time in this postseason.
The Celts had led by as many as nine before the Pistons went on a 12-2 run to lead 70-60 a minute and a half into the fourth quarter. Kevin Garnett then had four points in a 10-0 run that tied the game with 7:35 left.
Pierce scored on a driving three-point play for a 75-74 lead two minutes later, and the Celtics would not trail again.
The Celts shot 61.5 percent in the last quarter.
"We talked about before the game that this was going to be the toughest win of the year, that there may be a time that we're going to be down, and we couldn't worry about being down," said coach Doc Rivers. "We couldn't worry about where we're at, and we just have to keep playing through it. And I thought we did that."
