I thought the Celtics were going to let that one slip away, but Pierce saved their butts in the fourth quarter with 11 points. (Interesting stat from the story I linked above: Pierce led the NBA in fourth-quarter points with 552. That’s pretty incredible, considering the competition: Garnett, Bryant, et. al.) In total, Pierce had 25 and Walker had 11, as compared to Iverson’s 29.

Charles Barkley made a good point for once on TNT, which was that sometimes the game of basketball is very simple. The Celtics have two bona fide scoring machines and the Sixers only have one. As long as the Celtics play good enough defense to keep McKie, Snow or Coleman from being a huge factor on the offensive side of the ball, they’re good to go.

So defense is the difference, but as clutch as Pierce was in the fourth, the Celtics had a very balanced scoring attack for a change. McCarty, Pierce, Battie and Williams all scored in double figures. It would be very nice if the Celtics could go into Philly and complete the sweep on their home court. Then the Celtics could just sit back and wait for their second-round opponent. By the way, it was great to really hear the Boston crowd really getting into it. They must be elated to have the Celtics playing games that matter again.