As soon as the game was over, my buddy Chris (who's a Spurs fan) sent me a text message:  "I want to see these 2 teams in the conference finals".  Me too, Chris.  Me too.

All the credit in the world to the Pistons, and specifically Chauncey Billups, who knocked down two free-throws with a tenth of a second left to seal the win, 87-85.  They gave the Celtics everything they had and handed Boston its first home loss of the season.  Detroit played tough on both ends of the court, let the Celtics go on a few runs throughout the game, but wouldn't be put away.  This was an endurance test, and Detroit came out on top.

The bad news for Pistons fans is that the Celtics didn't play their game.  Yes, part of that goes to the great Pistons defense.  But the C's shot only 60% from the free-throw line, and were cold from beyond the arc -- 1-10 at one point before Ray Allen knocked down a few (Boston finished 4-14).  I can guarantee that they won't let that happen next time.

We had the two best teams in the Eastern Conference go to war tonight, and while I'm pretty upset at the outcome, I just watched two great teams play an amazing game of basketball.  While the score was low, the intensity and execution were not.  Both teams were unselfish on the offensive end and unforgiving on defense.  I hope we do meet in the Eastern Conference finals, because it looks like it may be a 7-game series I'll be telling my grandkids about.

BOXSCORE

I have no complaints about how any of the Celtics played tonight.   Boston came out a bit flat to begin the game, but Raaaaaaaajoooooooooon Rooooooonnnnnndooooooooooo stepped up and ran off 10 consecutive points, including a disgusting fake on Rasheed Wallace.  Rondo left his guts on the court tonight, but was outplayed by the stronger, veteran-savvy Billups.  Rondo finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Pierce was never really able to get himself going.  I blame it more on Pierce trying to do too much than Detroit's defense.  Covering him for most of the game, Tayshaun Prince was unable to contain Paul.  Pierce used his strength to bull past him, and despite Prince's weird-long arms, Pierce had no trouble getting his shot off.  His shots just weren't falling.  He ended up shooting 5-16, tallying 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 turnovers.

You can tell that Kevin Garnett thrives in these big games.  He lead Boston with 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.  He was a little sloppy with the ball, turning it over 5 times, and was unable to come up with a steal or a blocked shot all night.  He was knocking down 20-foot jump shots all night, which is great, but he didn't seem to venture down-low too much.  I would've liked to see if anyone on Detroit could've handled KG on the post.  Maybe we'll find out next time.

MVC:   Ray Allen came back from his injury and was huge for the C's.  He had a hot hand all night, and I think Boston should have put the ball in his hands more often.  He was on the court for 38 minutes, so his ankle must have been feeling fine.  He ended up scoring 24 points (with 3 3's), grabbed 5 boards and had 2 assists with no turnovers.  He shot 9-13 from the field, including a game-tying 3 pointer with just under 19 seconds to play.

This is going to be the first, and hopefully last of my criticisms of Doc Rivers.  I know, we're 20-3 so let's cut the guy some slack... but his old rotation mismanagement abilities were shining tonight.  Why'd he bring in Tony Allen cold off the bench to cover Billups?  Plus, James Posey, our best player off the bench, played less than 4 minutes.  To put that in perspective, Scot Pollard played 7, Glen Davis had nearly 11 and Eddie House racked up 13.  Now, I love Glen Davis.  He's going to be a stud... but he should've spent most of the night on his butt.  He committed 2 fouls within his first 10 seconds on the court and finished the game with a +/- rating of -5 (yes, Posey finished with -6, but when you're on the court for 3 minutes, it's hard to have much control of that).  You need to play your veterans in these big games... especially the defensive stoppers.

Lastly, I don't have much to complain about.  We got to see two of the best in the league battle 'til the end, and while we didn't end up on top, I'm pretty confident that we're the better team and can take them not only next time, but in the playoffs as well -- if Chris gets his wish.

[We'll post the Tickets Contest daily winner and leaderboard tomorrow]