Back-to-back injuries were a sore subject

Pierce, Perkins exit with injuries

The Celtics had managed to remain remarkably healthy throughout the playoffs. Even though they went the maximum seven games in their first two series against the Hawks and Cavaliers, the Celtics didn't suffer many physical breakdowns.

In fact, reserve Tony Allen seemed to incur the only injury of the postseason: a strain of his right Achilles' tendon, which occurred in a game of one-on-one after practice during the Eastern Conference finals.

Then, in a frightening 36-second span midway through the third quarter of last night's Game 1 of the Finals against the Lakers, two Celtic starters left the court with injuries, the worse of which appeared to be sustained by captain Paul Pierce, who had to be carried off by teammates Allen and Brian Scalabrine with 6:49 remaining in the quarter.

"I thought that was it," said Pierce, who strained the meniscus of his right knee and wound up returning with 5:04 remaining in the third to hit back-to-back 3-pointers that highlighted his 22-point night.

Pierce said he suffered the injury when teammate Kendrick Perkins stepped on his right ankle, causing his knee to twist and pop. After scoring the first 8 points of the second half, Pierce was placed in a wheelchair and taken into the locker room for treatment.

Things did not look good for the Celtics, who trailed, 62-58.

"We could have easily felt sorry for ourselves," said coach Doc Rivers.

Thirty-six seconds after Pierce exited, Perkins followed when he injured his left ankle after drawing his fourth personal on a loose-ball foul. Perkins hobbled back downcourt before limping off under his own power, disappearing into the tunnel that leads to the locker room. He never returned to the game.

"He told me at the beginning of the fourth, 'I can give you 60 percent,' " Rivers said. "I don't know how he knew it was that percent, but he said 60 percent, so I was thinking, 'Well, that's not good enough,' and we'll reevaluate that."

As for Pierce? "Honestly, I thought the worst," Rivers said. "I just thought the knee, and when it's the knee it could be anything."

Any which way

With the Celtics, the best defensive team in the playoffs, squaring off against the Lakers, the best offensive team in the playoffs, Rivers was asked during yesterday morning's shootaround if it would be important for the Celtics to control the tempo.

"I don't know if it's as important as everyone thinks," Rivers said. "We don't mind running. We can win either way. We just don't want them to run."

In the two regular-season meetings, both Celtic wins, Boston outscored Los Angeles by an average of 108.5-92.5, while limiting the Lakers to 38.8 percent shooting.

"So if the tempo is fast and in our favor, we'll take that," Rivers said. "We just don't want them to get any easy shots, easy baskets, baskets within the first six seconds, which is what we call fast breaks. We want to take that away."

Miracle worker

Idle since Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Pistons, Tony Allen was activated by the Celtics after making a recovery from a strained right Achilles' tendon that Rivers described Tuesday, tongue-in-cheek, as "a miracle."

On Monday, when Allen was unable to make it through the walkthrough portion of practice, Rivers declared, "It doesn't look good," taking a gloomy outlook for the fourth-year guard's availability for the Finals. Then on Tuesday, Allen surprised Rivers when he came out and "was dunking it and laying it in" during practice.

"A miracle," Rivers said. "It's a miracle."

Last night, Rivers decided to activate Allen but he didn't get in the game.

Long time coming

Last night's game represented the first time Phil Jackson had coached against the Celtics in the playoffs. "I was just at the cusp of the rise of the Bulls and the demise of the Celtics teams that were the great teams of the '80s," Jackson said. "I was associated with the Bulls as an assistant coach and as a head coach, and Detroit was coming off their second, or into their second championship season. Yeah, it's 20-something years almost now, and not to have faced them is really an interesting thing, as dynamic as this franchise has been." . . . The Celtics entered having won all three of their Game 1s this postseason. Were the Celtics better as a front-running team? "I don't know the answer because we haven't been behind," Rivers said. "And if I have my choice, I would rather be the team that's in front. So let's just keep that trend going. I think that would be terrific." . . . Looking, perhaps, for a little bit of their championship mojo to rub off, the Celtics welcomed Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Red Sox owner John W. Henry to the game . . . Also in attendance, by invitation of the league, were Celtics legends Bill Russell and John Havlicek, as well as former 76ers star Julius Erving. Havlicek threw out the ceremonial first pitch at last night's Sox game, for which the club urged fans to wear green in support of the Celtics . . . James Taylor sang the national anthem last night, and the Boston Pops are scheduled to do the honors Sunday prior to Game 2.