Suddenly, it was the (supposedly) mentally tough Pistons who lost their composure, standing dumbfounded with that "deer-in-the-headlights" look as they squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter ... even though the refs did everything in their power to help keep Detroit in the game*.However, nothing could overcome a dominating performance by the C's in the fourth quarter, where Paul Pierce scored 12 of his team-high 27 points in the final stanza (he almost single-handedly outscored the entire Detroit team himself, who had just 13 points in the quarter). Meanwhile, they limited the Pistons to 33.3 percent shooting in the fourth, while forcing the team into committing six of their 13 turnovers during the final twelve minutes! Not bad for a team that can't finish off opponents and crumbles under the playoff pressure, eh?
So now, it's the Finals matchup that the NBA suits and ABC advertising execs have been praying for (possibly by sacrificing small farm animals in the name of their dark gods): Celtics versus Lakers makes its return after a 21-year absence ... Unfortunately, it seems that everyone is favoring the Black Mamba and his La-La Land lackeys, but we'll see if The Truth and his crew have a little more gas left in the tank.
Game One starts Thursday, baby, I can't wait!
* Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, as I'm really only focusing on that one horrendous offensive foul call where Hamilton just bowled over Pierce - as he hit the three pointer while falling away, mind you - and yet Bennett Salvatore took away a potential four-point play that would have gotten the Celts back within two. Not that it matters now anyway, but Michael Wilbon did call it "the worst call in the playoffs in history" after the game on SportsCenter, so you can't exactly charge me with homer-ism on that one!
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