The benefit of hindsight is that everything looks destined, preordained to happen by fate — but when the Boston Celtics fell into a 24-point deficit to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals, Banner 17 looked far from certain to be on its way.
A loss to the Lakers would have tied the series 2-2 with one more home game for L.A. cued up that could have put the Celtics in a position to return to Boston down three games to two.
But the Celtics battled back and secured the 97-91 win on the road, and set themselves up to win the championship as a result — but what did it feel like to have been staring at that massive hole, and what not digging out of it might have represented to one of the finest Celtics seasons on record?
Forward Paul Pierce was asked exactly this question while appearing with former teammate Kendrick Perkins on a recent episode of ESPN’s “The Jump”.
His response?
“When you pay for one of the most stubborn teams, the most stubborn coaches and one of the most stubborn defenses of all time, we didn’t sweat once,” began the Kansas product.
“We always felt like we [could] come back. No lead was safe around our defense because we had the best defensive player in the game — arguably one of the best defensive players of all time — in Kevin Garnett. Perkins, [Rajon] Rondo, we had one of the greatest defenses. We always felt like we were going to give ourselves a chance and that kept that confidence in us.”
“We just continued to break the lead down once [P.J. Brown] got the two at the end of the third [quarter],” added the Truth.
Doc Rivers relates the one thing he'd argue with KG over on Celtics https://t.co/Q9x8dSbB6B via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) April 26, 2020
Pierce would score 20 points and 7 assists to lead Boston’s historic comeback, Ray Allen 19 points and 7 rebounds and Kevin Garnett 16 points and 11 boards, but it was truly a team effort on both ends of the court that saved the game for Boston.
“I thought our defense was great,” Brown said at the time via the New York Times’ Howard Beck. “I thought Paul led the charge by switching on Kobe [Bryant].”
It was the greatest Finals comeback since records began to be kept by Elias Sports Bureau in the 1970-71 NBA season.
One Paul Pierce was certain to come, even without the benefit of hindsight.
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