The Finals Countdown

It's the Finals' countdown - Da-na-naa-n. Da-na-neh-neh-neh.

It's the song the Pistons' used during their home-court introductions. It's the last song played directly after the intros at the Garden. It's the song I've used countless times during a run to get pumped up. Now it's the song summing up the near week-long wait before the 2008 NBA Finals get underway. We seriously have to wait until Thursday? The every-other-day wait was bad enough; this is just unreasonable. Now I have the entire week to think about how intimidating of a team the Lakers have. Awesome.

Questions

After Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals I found myself asking plenty of questions. Did that really just happen? Did the Celtics, previously 1-6 on the road in the playoffs, come back from 10 down in the fourth quarter? Did a veteran NBA official really make that "offensive foul" call and negate a four-point-play from Paul Pierce? Is Rasheed Wallace the biggest jerk in the NBA? Does Stuart Scott really think he's cool? Have the Pistons officially turned into the Atlanta Braves of the NBA? I think we can safely answer yes to every single question.

The Moment of Truth

Pierce, the longtime Celtic, was so eager to celebrate his first Eastern Conference Title he did it with the fans in Detroit. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

Remember how Pierce took over Game 7 against the Cavs to lead the C's to the Eastern Conference Finals? Well he did it again in Game 6 against the Pistons, this time taking the Celtics to their final destination -- the NBA Finals. He didn't go off for 40 this time, but he only missed on 4 of 12 shots while scoring 12 points in the final eight minutes of the game. His composure down the stretch (minus the two missed free throws in the final 30 seconds) is what helped the Celtics battle back.

I touched on it during the Atlanta series, but he has matured so much during this season. After the worst call in playoff history late in the third quarter, he put the team on his back and brought them to the promised land. You can say all you want about KG not being clutch at the end of games, but as far as I'm concerned, Pierce is this team's closer. He's no Kobe when it comes to scoring, but I'll take KG and Ray-Ray as teammates over Gasol and Odom all day.

Let's also not forget how well Pierce does against L.A. Throughout his career he has thrived when playing against his hometown team. He's shown he can step it up in big moments in the last two series and if he does it once more, he'll mark his own place in history and solidify his spot in the Hall of Fame.

Random bullet-point-worthy thoughts:

• Thanks to Tony Allen becoming the Mark Prior of the NBA (minus the unapproachable talent), Brian Scalabrine was able to dress for his first two playoff games this season. Not coincidently, the Celtics won both games and advanced to the Finals. SCAL-A-BRINE ** clap-clap clapclapclap**
• Favorite moment of the playoffs so far -- KG posterizing Ratliff with his emphatic dunk in Game 5 followed by Rondo shoving him out of bounds while the clock was still running. Later in his blog we found out Rondo was "crazy happy" and the vets were "geeked" about heading into the playoffs. Thank you Rondo for officially adding the word "geeked" to my vocabulary.
• I just checked out Stubhub for Finals tickets. Anybody willing to spot me $28,573 for a courtside seat to Game 3 at the Staples Center? If so, I'll pay my own airfare! Seriously though, 28 grand... I could complete my lifelong dream and build my own jumbotron in my house for that amount.
• Did anybody catch Antonio McDyess doing his impersonation of the Detroit announcer saying his name during introductions? That solidified that McDyess is the most boring player in the NBA.
• After about 20 minutes of googling I finally figured out who the creepy-looking mustached man is that pulls Chauncey Billups out of his seat during the pre-game introductions -- it's their trainer, Mike Abdenour. In this chat transcript he said Dennis Rodman was the coolest player he'd ever worked with. So apparently he's not only creepy-LOOKING.
• The first text message I sent after the Celtics' Game 6 victory was "I love life." Hopefully I'll be forwarding that out after the Celtics/Lakers series ends -- if so, I'll be crazy geeked.