Beautiful goodbye, better ‘W’
Pierce heads off with 3, while C’s win 7th straight
Far be it for Isaiah Thomas to get in the way of history, especially the history of his own team. So when Paul Pierce got the ball on the left of the 3-point arc, his famous sweet spot, Thomas backed away.
Just as a pitcher named Dan Spillner once attempted to groove a pitch to Carl Yastrzemski on the slugger’s last-ever atbat, the Celtics guard wanted Pierce’s last shot at the Garden to be immortal.
“Yeah, I wanted him to shoot. I didn’t even think he was going to shoot it, so I tried to back up as much as I could so he could try to make it,” Thomas said. “That’s what he does. Damn, that’s what he does. No matter what the moment is, he always comes through. I’m glad I just got to be a part of it.”
The 3 did nothing to change the result, a 107-102 win over the Clippers, the Celtics’ seventh straight victory.
None of what raised the decibel level in the Garden yesterday was lost on Thomas, who is building his own love affair with the crowd. Pierce received a standing ovation when he took the floor with the Clippers for warmups, then again when he was introduced as a starter. That time, the fans wouldn’t stop.
He’s probably the only Celtic ever to receive two video tributes — the first as a Net, the second yesterday during the game’s first timeout. Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers then sat Pierce — not part of the Clippers rotation and who hadn’t played since Dec. 31 — and went about trying to beat the second-seeded team in the Eastern Conference. Beyond the 23 each scored by Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford, though, there was no getting over the hump yesterday. The Celtics, taking what the Clippers gave them outside the paint, attempted a season-high 52 3-pointers yesterday, making 16.
The 3-ball would be enough to keep them ahead, though. Despite a late 10-2 Clippers run in the last 2:37 that cut the Celtics advantage to 103-99, the Celtics held on with two free throws each from Thomas and Al Horford.
Thomas, with 28 points, broke the 20-point barrier for a league-leading 35th straight time.
And throughout all of it the crowd kept chanting, “We want Paul Pierce,” until Rivers finally relented and sent him in to hit a meaningless 28-footer. Meaningless, that is, in the context of the game only.
Thomas couldn’t stop marveling at the Garden crowd. By the time Pierce walked back out to midcourt after the game to kiss the leprechaun for a second time, those who hadn’t left were back on their feet.
“You win a championship here, they’ll give you their love forever,” Thomas said. “It was the definition of what they do tonight, for one of the best players to ever play.”
Thomas understands well, because much of that affection has been turned on him.
“It drives me a lot,” he said. “I want to be like that one day, to be in that situation where I could be in the franchise for a long time, give it my blood, sweat and tears, and play your last game here and get that kind of love. It’s unbelievable.
“Anybody who’s a part of this, it’s special. It’s a special moment. I was even chanting ‘Paul Pierce’ when I was in there for him to come back in the game. I’m glad Doc put him back in to make that last shot.”