Game 7 for two series
The Boston Celtics earned themselves one more chance at home, though that’s hardly been an advantage so far.
In the wildest game yet of a series headed to a Game 7, the Celtics overcame the late ejection of Paul Pierce and sent their first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers back to Boston for the deciding game with a 92-89 victory in Indianapolis Thursday night.
“That is the craziest … game I’ve ever seen in my life,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “This series has just been unreal.”
In the six games thus far, the home team has won just twice. Three of the games were blowouts, and each time, the losing team came back to win the next one on the road.
On Thursday night, Antoine Walker scored 24 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer early in overtime and the clinching basket with a minute to go to keep the Celtics alive.
“I was just trying to rally the troops together,” Walker said. “We were in a hostile environment and I tried to rally the troops to keep going on and play.”
Boston came back from an early 11-point deficit, took the lead late in the second quarter and stayed in front until the closing seconds of regulation, when Pierce was ejected for his second technical foul.
Boston led 84-83 at the time, and Pierce had just been intentionally fouled by Jamaal Tinsley as the Pacers tried to stop the clock. Tinsley hit Pierce in the neck while fouling him, and Pierce appeared to swing his elbow in anger.
“It was an overreaction to a hard foul and I lost my cool out there. It almost cost us,” Pierce said. “I’m just happy we got the win. I don’t know how I’d feel if we lost this game.”
Referee Steve Javie did not immediately make a call. But after huddling with the other two officials, Pierce was assessed his second technical foul of the game – an automatic ejection.
“I thought Tinsley should have been kicked out of the game for some of the dirty things he did to us. He had his hands in my face on the last play, and that’s why I overreacted,” Pierce said. “It won’t happen again.”
Reggie Miller hit the technical foul shot to tie the game, and the Pacers got to choose which Celtics player would replace Pierce at the foul line. They selected Kendrick Perkins, a 64 percent foul shooter, and he missed both attempts.
The Pacers then had a chance to win, but Miller shot an airball from well behind the 3-point line, sending the game to overtime.
“When the incident happened with Paul, all I told the team … was that we cannot lose this game,” Rivers said. “We cannot. … We’ve played all year to have a Game 7 in our place.”
Al Jefferson scored the first basket of the extra period, and there was one more tie before Walker’s 3-pointer put the Celtics ahead to stay. His next basket made it 91-87 before Tinsley scored, and Indiana got the ball back with 15 seconds left.
Jermaine O’Neal then missed a 16-foot turnaround and the ball went out of bounds over the backboard. Delonte West hit 1 of 2 free throws to finish the scoring for Boston, and Indiana’s Anthony Johnson missed a 3-pointer after Indiana inbounded with 0.7 seconds left.
Rockets 101, Mavericks 83: Tracy McGrady had 37 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to help host Houston avoid a first-round exit with a victory over Dallas.
The series is now tied 3-3, with Game 7 in Dallas on Saturday. The winner will face top-seeded Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals.
Mike James came off the bench for 22 points and Jon Barry scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter for the Rockets, who have been bounced in the opening round in their last three playoff appearances.
Houston last won a series in 1997, when the lineup featured Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley.
Jerry Stackhouse led Dallas with 21 points, and Dirk Nowitzki scored 19 on only 5-of-22 shooting as he continued his series-long struggles against McGrady’s defense.
McGrady scored eight straight points, including two 3s, during a 19-0 spurt that turned a close game into a rout and gave Houston a 101-80 lead.
All-Rookie team
Rookie of the Year Emeka Okafor and Sixth Man award winner Ben Gordon were unanimous choices for the NBA All-Rookie team announced Thursday.
Charlotte center Okafor, the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft, and Chicago guard Gordon led all rookies in scoring with 15.1 points per game. Orlando’s Dwight Howard joined Okafor and Gordon as unanimous selections with 58 points in balloting by the league’s head coaches.
Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala (56) and Chicago’s Luol Deng (33) also made the team.
The second team was New Jersey’s Nenad Krstic, Atlanta’s Josh Smith and Josh Childress, Orlando’s Jameer Nelson and Boston’s Al Jefferson.