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When the final horn sounded, after his team had pulled together and staged perhaps the greatest comeback in its famed history, Paul Pierce doubled over in exhaustion. He had given it his all. Like the Celtics greats before him.
Showing the same grit and guts of Boston teams of yesteryear, the Celtics rallied from a 24-point deficit and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 97-91 on Thursday night to take a commanding 3-1 lead in this history-rich series and move within one victory of a 17th championship that seemed impossible a year ago.
With a nod to Cousy, Russell, Bird, Havlicek and the other legends who have worn the green, these Celtics never quit.
"They just hung in there together," Boston coach Doc Rivers said.
And now they are just one win from another NBA title, their first since 1986.
"Yeah," Kevin Garnett said. "I can taste it."
And back in Boston, the faithful may be saying "its o-vah."
In their comeback season, the Celtics, who won only 24 games last season, saved their biggest one of all for the finals. They trailed 45-21 in the second quarter, 18 at halftime and were still down by 20 in the third quarter before rallying to stun the Lakers, who are in a deep hole they could have never imagined.
"I'm upset, hurt, disappointed," said Kobe Bryant, who didn't make a field goal in the first half and went just 6-of-19 from the field. "It's a huge loss."
An historic one, too.
Since the Elias Sports Bureau became the league's official statistician in 1971, Boston's comeback is unrivaled and topped the 20-point rally by Houston against Orlando in 1995.
"It's definitely a great win, one that you're going to put up there in the library and break back out one day for your kids to watch," Pierce said. "But I want nothing more than that ring right now."
Pierce scored 20 points, Garnett had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Ray Allen had 19 points, two coming on a marvelous reverse layup in the fourth as Boston's Big Three, thrown together last summer by general manager Danny Ainge to revive a franchise accustomed to hanging banners from the rafters, put the Lakers on the brink of a summer vacation.
But the Celtics' big trio got plenty of help as James Posey scored 18 points and Eddie House came off the bench to score 11, including a jumper with 4:07 left that gave Boston its first lead and one it would never give up.
The Celtics can reclaim their place atop pro basketball with a win in Game 5 on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
No team has ever recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the finals, and the Lakers don't appear ready to become the first.
