http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/10845390/2
BOSTON -- They almost gave it away. They tried. They really tried.
In ocean of choke jobs, this would have been the Titanic. In the history of gagging, this game might've been the love child of Greg Norman and Scott Norwood.
Rasheed Wallace and Detroit should be worried entering Friday's Game 6. The Celtics hung on the beat the Pistons 106-102, and a win is a win is a win. No question.
And Boston's win means the Celtics are probably going to take this Eastern Conference finals.
A Boston-L.A. Lakers Finals is all but a foregone conclusion so fire up the ratings machine and corporate jet, Commissioner Stern, it's West Coast versus East Coast. Maybe Ice Cube and Wu-Tang can have a rap-off at halftime.
The only thing left to do is roll Jack Nicholson out of his coffin and begin the Larry and Magic retrospectives.
The reason why it's looking like the Celtics and Lakers is due to one stunning statistic: 29-0.
The Celtics are 29-0 in series when leading 3-2. That's an incredible number. It's not just a mountain for the Pistons to climb, it's John Daly's belly.
Twenty-nine and uh oh, if you're the Pistons.
And I see no reason why the genetics of Boston's history of closing out foes won't trickle down, chromosome to chromosome, to this bunch.
The only problem is the way Boston finished the game. It wasn't exactly how McHale's Celtics used to close out teams, eh?
That's why this contest was so pivotal and a Boston collapse would have been so devastating. History shows that the winner of Game 5 usually moves on.
And the Celtics will. You can almost count on it.
But coach Doc Rivers will have to initiate some serious healing and spinning both in and outside of the locker room. Boston gave up a 17-point, second-half lead at home and limped to the finish line. That could have some ugly consequences for Game 6 if Rivers and the Celtics aren't careful.
"(That) was the longest fourth quarter out of all the games we played in," Paul Pierce said. "I was a little disappointed the way we played the fourth quarter ... we're going to have to go back and look at it because if we get ourselves in this position again in Detroit we've got to be able to close the game out a little bit better than we did tonight."
The numbers are against Detroit, but this isn't to say the Pistons won't gut out a Game 6 victory. The problem for Detroit is winning two consecutive games against Boston. Good luck with that.
Particularly since the Celtics have the last game at home and the Pistons are 4-9 in series when trailing 3-2. Teams that capture Game 5 win the series 83 percent of the time. That's more statistical combustibles for the Pistons bon fire the Celtics will eventually end up lighting.
The Pistons are of course more than statistics and trends. They're heart, guts and sinew. They have not become one of the great franchises by being soft. They've been elite because they're tough. We witnessed that toughness in Game 4. It was as if the Pistons knew a loss in this game would be nearly disastrous. Trust me: Detroit knows all of the numbers as well.
Two key moments of late Celtics tomfoolery severely hurt Boston. Guard Rajon Rondo, with 2:54 left, committed one of the most knuckleheaded fouls you'll ever see. He smacked Chauncey Billups in the act of shooting from behind the 3-point line. Billups made all three free throws. Then, in another act of stupidity, Kendrick Perkins was called for a technical foul just seconds after Rondo's mental lapse.
It wasn't the prettiest win for the Celtics but it was a win. Now, not even the Pistons can overcome the overwhelming odds staring them in the face.
With the exception of their lazy fourth, the Celtics unleashed the perfect storm of near dominance. Kevin Garnett came up big with a game-high 33 points (the people who say he can't take a team on his back in big spots need to shut up now), Boston bruised Detroit inside and Ray Allen's ghetto body double finally went home. The real Allen scored 29 points and made five of six 3-point shots.
Perkins, in spite of his technical, was huge. He had 18 points and 16 rebounds. He destroyed Rasheed Wallace inside.
"Perkins is eating us up," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "The games that they've won, he's had big games."
No, it wasn't pretty but the Celtics did it.
29-0.
How's the weather in Los Angeles this time of year?
...... 
