"That's How You Fight"

After Game 4 I watched Paul Pierce leave the floor at Staples and enter the tunnel to the locker room. "That's how you fight," Pierce said to himself and anyone that was listening.

One concept I've been intrigued by since the beginning of the year is the notion of "imposing your will" on a basketball court. The concept was popularized by Tim Duncan, who often said that winning playoff games comes down to imposing your will on an opponent. Basketball isn't football, I thought, so what does he mean? If you try and be too physical, you'll get yourself in foul trouble and your team in trouble.

But as the season progressed, I started understanding the concept more.

In the 12/30 game at Staples, the play-by-play guy said "Kevin Garnett is now having his way against the Lakers." That's when the wheels started clicking. Getting what you what on offense and preventing the other team from getting what it wants on defense--that must be what's meant by imposing your will.

In part, at least.

Another part is fighting to get what you want.

And Paul Pierce is Larry Bird's equal on this one.

Larry might have been more talented and won more titles. But when it comes to fighting, fighting for what you want on a basketball court, Paul Pierce is tooth and nail, hammer and tong. Larry Bird would go to war with Pierce at his back and vice versa.

I'm not old enough to remember much about Bill Russell, the battlefield warrior. So no disrespect to the man that won eleven titles.

But since May of 1974, really the first year I declared Green to be my team, there have been three fighters who have stood out from the rest of the Celtics family during that period--Bird, Pierce, and Cowens. I loved Dave Cowens, but he quit on the Celtics once and then retired early. So he loses points with me there.

Pierce needs to close the deal tomorrow night, fight it out one last time this year and raise his arms to declare victory. Then he can climb another rung in the pantheon of Celtic greats.