Celtics Title Town

"There's always positives from every game, but you've got to look at negative things when you play against the best team in the NBA right now," Pierce said. "It's always going to come down to the little things and those things really add up at the end of the game when you have a two-point loss."

Pierce finished with  17 points on 6-of-11 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and eight assists. Paul also had 7 turnovers out of Boston's 20 for the game. That's what did the Celtics in honestly. The turnovers.. You just can't do that against the Heat. They will eat you alive, and they will make you pay. They did that in a very close game down the stretch. The big negative from this game had to be turnovers.

"We feel like we match up with them, top to bottom," Pierce said. "But, like I said, no moral victories. Even though it was a close game, we beat them here (in January), the playoffs is a different game."

The Celtics despite not having Rondo this season still play the Heat well. They have bigs they can throw at them, and they have wings that they can throw  at them. Paul missed the potential game winning three, and that was a mistake. They should have set up Jeff Green for something. It was his night. Paul was big for one reason tonight. He didn't get into a pissing contest with James. He allowed the younger Jeff Green to do that. Paul did have a good look with that three in the final offensive play for the Celtics. 

"It felt good coming out of the hands, but sometimes they fall, sometimes they don't," he said.

It didn't fall tonight, and hopefully the Celtics build off another moral victory. This team was without KG, and you can see this Celtics team prime for one of the greatest upsets in NBA history if both teams see each other in the playoffs.