It was ugly. It was excruciating. It was dental surgery without anesthesia. It was like watching a man bleed to death. The Celtics and Pistons set basketball back 50 years tonight with a miserable game, riddled with turnovers, questionable decisions, and shooting percentages low enough to make a brave man weep. But when it was all said and done, the Celtics escaped with the 66-64 win (if you can even call it that).

Jerry Stackhouse's 3-pointer at the buzzer was (correctly) ruled to be too late. Paul Pierce said "we escaped by the hairs on our chinny-chin-chins". Mark, who sits in front of me at the games, muttered "I'd better go to church on Sunday" on the way out. Coach O'Brien said, "It's not a dance theater...I'll take them any way I can get them".

Now let's never speak of this game again.