Boston wins in Detroit, enters finals

The Detroit Pistons opened the fourth quarter with a ten point lead 70-60 on Richard Hamilton’s jumper and the motor city home crowd erupted in cheers and was already anticipating a Game 7 for the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Unfortunately the Boston Celtics had other things in mind as they regrouped to comeback with a paralyzing 23-6 run to close out the Detroit Pistons in the Palace in Auburn Hills with an 89-81 win and a ticket to 2008 NBA Finals.

Chauncey Billups came up with a big offensive game in the first three quarters but was shadowed by James Posey mostly in the fourth quarter . Billups lost his shooting touch as evidenced by missing two open triples but still managed to lead all scorers with 29 points. Richard Hamilton, bad elbow and all still scorched the nets with 21 pts but was nowhere to be found in the crucial minutes of the game.

The first half saw Kevin Garnett play awful and Rasheed Wallace play worse as both forwards was a combined 2/18 at the half. Ray Allen paced the Celtics with 15 first half points with Paul Pierce just on coast mode as the Celtics led 40-37 at the half.The third quarter saw the Pistons come alive as they pounded the Celtics defense with 31 third quarter points courtesy of Billups and Tayshaun Prince who fueled their drive to stay alive. The Pistons erased a 6 point deficit to end the quarter up by eight 68-60.

In the fourth quarter Kevin Garnett recovered his shooting touch and Paul Pierce who scored 27 points was simply unstoppable. The two conspired for the big Boston The last few minutes saw the Celtics convert most of their free throws to widen the gap after the Pistons misfired in spite of the open shots they got. comeback with big baskets and more importantly focus on the game despite the spotty officiating.

This is the 20^th finals appearance for the Celtics with their last title coming in 1986 and their last finals loss coming in 1987 – from the Lakers.tThe table is set, it’s a Boston – LA finals which is what everyone is waiting for. Good luck to the Boston Celtics, a title will definitely give them their team the tag of the greatest turnaround in NBA history.