AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce walked together, sporting black hats with green fourleaf clovers nike flight classic , and tried to soak up the moment when both superstars became conference champions for the first time.
“My heart is beating faster,” Pierce said.
Pierce scored 27 points, Ray Allen had 17 and Garnett added 16 to lift the Boston Celtics to an 8981 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Boston got past an old nemesis to set up a matchup with another rival.
The Celtics, who locked up with Detroit many times in the 1980s, will now rekindle another classic series in the NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Garnett said. “Probably hasn’t even hit me yet because we haven’t slept in about four days, going on five days now. Going to the finals, I’m just hoping to get some sleep.”
After playing two Game 7s, the Celtics will get a needed break before hosting Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Thursday night.
“We’re emotionally drained,” Garnett said.
The Celtics are in the NBA finals for the first time since losing to the Lakers in 1987, the third meeting in a fouryear span.
The Pistons blew a 10point lead in the fourth quarter and lost in Game 6 of the conference finals for the third straight year. They were eliminated on their home court for the first time during a sixyear run that included a trip to the conference finals each year and the 2004 title.
“This is really tough,” said Chauncey Billups, who scored a playoffhigh 29 points air max 90 women. “We had it, and we didn’t get over the hump.”
Boston entered the series without a road win in the postseason, then beat Detroit on its home court twice to win the grueling series. The NBA’s topseeded team also rallied from a fourthquarter deficit for the first time in seven chances during the playoffs.
“It was probably the best thing because now we can say we have gone through some stuff and we’re still standing,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
The loss might lead to changes on a Detroit team that has looked the same on the court for four seasons.
Billups played well and Richard Hamilton scored 21, but the rest of their teammates had lackluster efforts especially Rasheed Wallace.
At one point Billups had 21 points, matching the total for the rest of the team.
Wallace scored just four points on 2of12 shooting and had three turnovers in what might’ve been his last game as a Piston and could’ve been Flip Saunders’ last as Detroit’s coach mens nike air max tn shoes cool black white. President of basketball operations Joe Dumars will likely make some sort of moves on the bench, the court or both.
“I’m sure that’s something Joe and I will sit down and evaluate,” Saunders said.
Wallace made three trips to his locker with reporters surrounding it before finally saying something to the media without taking questions.
“That’s the end, man,” Wallace said.
After it was 58all, Detroit closed the third quarter with a 102 run and took its first lead since midway through the opening quarter.
Just when it seemed the Pistons might be in control with a 7060 lead early in the fourth, the Celtics scored nine points in less than 2 minutes and went on a 194 run that put them ahead 7974.
Billups’ threepoint play pulled Detroit to 8379 with 2:24 left, then the Pistons wasted a chance to get closer.
Tayshaun Prince grabbed a loose ball after a Boston miss and turned the ball over when James Posey surprised him from behind and snatched it away men’s nike air max 2011 shoes.