Championing their cause

The Celtics and the soldout FleetCenter crowd celebrated as if it were a postseason victory -- the Pistons could very well be a second-round opponent. Paul Pierce, who had a game-high 38 points, went into the stands. Mark Blount jumped on the baseline media table. Walker pumped his fist. A few of the younger players took steps toward center court, as if expecting some college-like throng to gather.

But more significantly, Boston showed it will be a tough team to contend with in the Eastern Conference playoffs, that it very well may deserve mention in the same sentence as Detroit and Miami.

Whether Rivers or Walker admits it, that was the real message during the timeout, that the Celtics should expect to be competitive for 48 or 58 minutes with the best of the East. When asked if the victory officially put Boston among the East's elite teams, Walker smiled and said, "Can we win the Atlantic Division first?"

While the Celtics don't want to get ahead of themselves, the division crown now seems more a steppingstone to a high seed and bigger goals. The way they won last night proves -- physically and mentally -- that the Celtics should readjust their expectations.

"I thought we literally gave them the game back in the first overtime," said Rivers. "We gave them the game in regulation, then we won the game in the second. They had the lead and we came back. We called that timeout in the second overtime with [3 minutes 52 seconds] left on the clock. It was the only time I thought we were about to cave in because we knew how many opportunities we had to win the game before that. It was almost better that we struggled like that, as far as having the game wrapped up twice, [the Pistons] taking the lead, and us staying in the game and winning the game. In the long run, that's going to mean more to us."