It wasn't Willis Reed, but Pierce's return was good enough for Celtics

Paul Pierce (left) returned to Game 1 and hit two three-pointers that helped put away Kobe Bryant (right) and the Lakers. John W. McDonough/SI

BOSTON -- Was it one of the all-time great moments in Finals history, a Willis Reed-like act of courage orchestrated from above by the ghost of Red Auerbach?

Or another bit of bad Beantown sports theater, as smelly as Curt Schilling's blood-stained sock?

That was the fun question flying around the NBA Finals on Friday after Lakers coach Phil Jackson playfully suggested that Paul Pierce's dramatic return from injury in Thursday night's Game 1 might have been a bit overblown.

"Paul got carried off and was back on his feet in a minute," Jackson said. "I don't know if the angels visited him at halftime or in that time-out period that he had or not, but he didn't even limp when he came back out on the floor.

"I don't know what was going on there. Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room?"

Jackson, the son of a Pentecostal minister, may be on to something. Pierce's comeback in Game 1 was truly like something out of a TV preacher's manual. One minute he was being carried off the floor, grimacing in pain, the apparent victim of a severely sprained knee. The next he was bounding onto the court to the strains of the theme for Rocky.

Not since the plaintiff in that LeBron James Nike commercial has a guy leaped out of a wheelchair so fast to grab a basketball.

Of course, Jackson might not have cared were it not for the fact that Pierce then proceeded to knock down two dagger three-pointers, pumping his fist after both to the delight of the frenzied TD Banknorth Garden crowd as the Celtics pulled away en route to their 98-88 victory.

"You know, you don't know what happens," Jackson said after the game. "Guys can break a shoelace and go out, the pants break down, drawstring falls apart."

Jackson is hardly alone in his cynicism about the incident. The blogosphere was buzzing Friday with NBA fans gagging over the Reed references. An ESPN SportsNation poll Friday showed 57 percent of U.S. fans agreed that Pierce overreacted.

Pierce crumpled to the floor like he had been shot after being faked by Kobe Bryant and having his knee landed on by 6-10, 280-pound teammate Kendrick Perkins. He lay there for several minutes before being carried off the court by two teammates. Later he was placed in a wheelchair.

For Pierce to come back moments later like he did almost strained belief.

"It was crazy to me because I've never been carried off the court," he said Friday. "It was like, Man, I said, I have to be close to death or blood everywhere for me to get carried off. It was sort of embarrassing truthfully.

"I should have just laid there for five more minutes and then got up. Hopefully it won't happen again. If I get carried off the next time, there's no way I'm going to come back."

As for Jackson questioning the validity of the incident, the Celtics seemed to brush it off. There was also the thought, at least among some media types, that the Zen Master was playing one of his famous mind games. Trying to get into the Celtics' heads and get them upset.

"I don't know what to say," said Pierce, who says he feared the worst when he first suffered the injury but now expects to play in Sunday's Game 2.

"The man got carried off the court," added Kevin Garnett. "That's pretty significant."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers chalked up all the cynicism about the Pierce drama to a culture that has made Oliver Stone a household name.

"Oh, I don't care," he said. "Aren't we skeptics anyway now about everything? So what the heck. Let it begin. Let it begin. Lee Harvey Oswald did it."

Whatever the case, Pierce's drama won't exactly replace the Reed incident in the NBA annals of great Finals moments.

Reed had a serious thigh injury that nearly kept him out of that Game 7. He nonetheless came out and scored the Knicks' first two baskets before having to leave and not return.

"[Reed] literally had to have a shot, a horse shot, three or four of them in his thigh to come back out and play," Jackson noted.

No, Pierce won't go down in NBA history like Reed. But he will go down in Boston sports lore, and that's enough for Celtics fans.