BOSTON—The free throw clanged hard off the front rim and headed for the heavens. With 7.9 seconds remaining and the Cleveland Cavaliers clinging to a final gasp of playoff hope, Paul Pierce wasn’t going to gag away this precious moment, was he?

“I think,” Pierce said after the Celtics returned to the National Basketball Association final for the first time since 2002, “the ghost of Red [Auerbach] was looking over us. He tapped it in the right direction.”

The ball dropped from the clouds and into the basket.

Pierce broke into a smile. It didn’t matter that he was engaged in the most serious duel of his career. It didn’t matter that he had another free throw to shoot in this 97-92 victory in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference semifinals. That smile wasn’t coming off his face for anything.

Before there was Kevin Garnett, before there was Ray Allen, there was Paul Pierce. Before there was a Big Three, there was, well, let’s allow Garnett to explain it.

“When I got here, I heard there was some guy named ‘The Truth.’” The truth is Pierce was the star of that 2002 team, but much more than that he was the star on the stinkers. He was the go-to guy when not many folks wanted to go to the TD Banknorth Garden to watch the Celtics.

“Paul deserves this,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

Pierce has been accused of plenty of things during his Celtics career, but perhaps no accusation is so wonderfully damning—or is that damningly wonderful?—as this one: Pierce wants too badly to be the hero.

Especially when he goes against LeBron James. Pierce sees LeBron, and he has a tendency to go all Irving Berlin on us. He sees LeBron, and instead of Annie getting her gun, it’s Paulie who gets his.

Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you.

The problem is that few—if any—can do it better than James.

But, damn, if Pierce didn’t give it a run Sunday. And because he did, it turned into one of those classic NBA playoff duels that folks will remember for 10, 20, 30 years. Because he did, folks could just sit back and revel in the flashbacks of Dominque Wilkins vs. Larry Bird in Game Seven of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals. And wouldn’t you know it? Red Auerbach showed up with 7.9 seconds left to deflect a free throw with his victory cigar.

Dominique scored 47 points that day 20 years ago in the old Garden, but Bird answered with 20 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter of a 118-116 win. The duel forever became part of the Celtics’ great scrapbook. And so will this one.

“I’m very aware of that game,” Pierce said. “They don’t ever let you forget it when you look up at the Jumbotron.”

Rivers was in an Atlanta Hawks uniform on May 22, 1988. When you’re a player, Doc swore, you’re so desperate you don’t even realize you’re in a great game. But this one?

“This one I could see up front,” Rivers said. “And it was a great vision.” “It was,” former Celtic Wally Szczerbiak said, “an epic battle.”

James dropped 45 on Pierce.

Pierce dropped 41 on James.

And it wasn’t just the succession of great shots.

There was James stripping Pierce for a key steal and monstrous dunk.

There was James failing to block out Pierce on an important jump ball with 58 seconds left and Pierce diving to grab the loose ball and calling timeout.

Anything you can be, I can be greater. Sooner or later, I’m greater than you.

“It was an old-fashioned shootout,” Garnett said. “It was great for basketball.”

There were little things on this day. And there were things. No, this game wasn’t played on as magnificent plane as that 1988 game—good grief, the Celtics and Hawks shot 72 percent in the fourth quarter—but this one was grand.

“Paul Pierce is one of my favorite players,” James said. “Second to Kobe Bryant, he has some of the best footwork I’ve ever seen in a player. We were both trying to will our teams to victory, and just like Dominque Wilkins, I ended up on the short end.

“The fans came to see us play, so let’s give them something to remember. Game Seven in the Garden, it gets no better than this. As a fan of basketball, I know so much about the history. This one will go down in history.”  --AP

Playing waiting game again

LOS ANGELES—Everything finally bubbles and boils over Monday night in a precursor to the Western Conference finals.

‘Mano-a-mano’ will be remembered for long time

BOSTON—The free throw clanged hard off the front rim and headed for the heavens. With 7.9 seconds remaining and the Cleveland Cavaliers clinging to a final gasp of playoff hope, Paul Pierce wasn’t going to gag away this precious moment, was he?

Manny Lopez couldn’t do anything with the present. So he had to dig deep into his bag for the future.

The president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap) said he is satisfied with the new names that emerged from the national open earlier this month.

YOUNG super-flyweight prospect AJ “Bazooka” Banal will get his first crack at a world title when he faces Rafael Concepcion of Panama for the World Boxing Association (WBA) super-flyweight crown.

Angelo Que finished second behind Singaporean Lam Chih-bing in the first leg of the Mercedes-Benz Tour—the Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia—played at the Emeralda Golf and Country Club in Jakarta.

THE door is now open for both local and Filipino-foreign players interested to join the 2008 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Rookie Draft.

THE Philippine Football Federation (PFF) plans to send homegrown players to the birthplace of soccer to prepare for the country’s next big tournament.

Indelible Ink made a big step forward by achieving another milestone in her career as she bagged the first leg of the Triple Crown Championship Series on Sunday at the jam-packed San Lazaro Leisure Park.