Not even a week of rest could prepare the Detroit Pistons for the hottest home team in the NBA. Kevin Garnett had 26 points and nine rebounds and Paul Pierce scored 22 points Tuesday night to give Boston an 88-79 victory over the Pistons in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics' 15th straight home win.
Despite having just one day off after an epic Game 7 that eliminated LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers from the conference semifinals, Boston scored the first eight points against a Detroit team that waited six days for the series to start.
"Rest is not an option,'' Garnett said. "So we don't even think about that.'' Kendrick Perkins had 10 rebounds for Boston and Rajon Rondo scored seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a 3-pointer with 1:47 left in the game after the Pistons cut the deficit to 83-75. Rondo also had seven assists and five steals while outplaying Chauncey Billups, the MVP of the 2004 NBA finals, in his return from a right hamstring injury.
"I believe in him. I play him. I'm going to keep playing him,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of his point guard. "I told him before the game, 'Stop worrying about them. Make them worry about you, too. You're a hell of a basketball player.'''
The Celtics earned home court through the playoffs with a league-best 66-16 regular season record and rode that advantage to seven-game victories in series against Atlanta and Cleveland. On Tuesday they improved to 9-0 at home in the playoffs, but they're 0-6 on the road.
"They haven't lost a game; they should be confident,'' said Billups, who missed the last 2 1/2 games of the Orlando series. "They have been very good here at home. We are usually a really good team; we didn't have a good game today, but we look forward to Thursday.'' /nba.com
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