Game 5. All or nothing. Backs against the wall. Pick a cliche. The Celts delivered big-time tonight. A few observations:

Paul Pierce. I can't say enough about this guy. 46 points, 6 assists, a couple huge defensive plays -- he exerted his will on this game.

Antoine. A fantastic game, if overshadowed by PP. Some clutch 3's, a couple great tip-ins, a knack for running the offense. Awesome.

The rest of the team. Good job. Tony Delk played tough D on Iverson, Eric Williams buried a 3 every time the Sixers left him open, even Rodney Rogers contributed positively.

The 4th Quarter. Simply unbelievable. The Celts went up by 10, the Sixers called time out, and the guy in front of us shook his head and said "still 8 minutes to go." Approximately 45 seconds later, the C's were up by 30, Pierce, Walker, Lucky, and JoJo White were burying 3's, and Coach Brown was scraping off the bottom of the Sixers bench (Alvin Jones?!?). I've never been in a full arena singing "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye" before. The wait was worth it.

The FleetCenter. Loud and proud. It's still not the Garden (I've only seen one mouse scurrying around, for one thing), but the place was electric tonight. Bonus points to the Jumbotron genius who came up with the movie clips to play during timeouts. 2nd quarter: Interspersed with Celtics highlight, it's the scene from Rudy where the coach ends by yelling, "No one comes into our house and pushes us around!" Then in the 4th, with the game in the bag, interspersed with Paul Pierce highlights, out comes the scene from A Few Good Men. "You want answers?" "I want the truth." "You can't handle The Truth!" Chills up and down and all over my spine.

Bob Kraft. The Patriots' owner was sitting in the front row. Celts' owner Paul Gaston was not visible from Section 308.

The Sixers. A valiant effort by Iverson, but the strain of carrying the entire team wore him down in the end. Mutombo is almost worthless (more on him in a second), Snow was nowhere to be found, and Derrick Coleman appeared in the box score for 37 minutes, but frankly, was hard to spot. Dikembe Mutombo is amazing. He flops like Reggie Miller and every time a foul is called, he gets the incredulous "They just replaced my coffee with Folger's Crystals" look on his face. If he weren't playing basketball for a living, he'd be wandering around department stores, "slipping" in the aisles and threatening lawsuits. Play the game, Deke. This looked like a team on the brink; I'll be shocked if Larry Brown is around next year to coach whatever's left.

The Pistons. Laimbeer, Isiah, and Rodman are gone, but the memory lingers. Bring it on baby! Celts in 6.