In one of the most signature moves of his career, Boston Celtics renowned small forward Paul Pierce buried a 3-pointer in the face of Indiana Pacers big man Al Harrington as time expired on this date in 2003.
Pierce, whose Celtics were up two games to one in the series as an underdog sixth seed to Indy’s third, led in Game 4 as well. Up 70-62 with less than 30 seconds left, Harrington picked up the Truth near half court, waving off teammate and defensive specialist Ron Artest (a.k.a. Metta World Peace).
The pair had been talking trash to one another all night, and Pierce took the opportunity to get in a few more choice words while dribbling in place and running down the clock.
So much so that referee Joe DeRosa made a point of telling the pair to stop talking and get on with the game, at which point Pierce simply rose up and buried the trey.
“Right in Harrington’s face,” came the call from longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman, adding insult to injury.
While it might not have been a decisive play with the game and series more or less already in hand, it epitomized the ice-cold zone Pierce would be able to slip into years down the road as Boston strived for banners.
Harrington, for his part, took the execution gracefully.
“I was down in my stance,” said Harrington after the game (via the New York Times’ Chris Broussard), “and he said: ‘That ain’t gonna do nothing. Here I come, here I come.’ And it didn’t do nothing because he made that three. I did all I could do because I fouled him and he still made the shot.”
“That was just a great shot,” he added. “That showed that he was on fire.”
Indeed.
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