Eight three-pointers. Sixteen field goals. A game-high 46 points.  There is no way Paul Pierce was going to let these Boston Celtics fall to the Philadelphia Sixers yesterday.  

There was a moment when Paul Pierce shook off Matt Harpring so badly that he drilled a three with Harpring facedown on his stomach - forcing laughter from Allen Iverson. There was another moment, another three from Boston, that upset Iverson so much, he nearly smacked Dikembe Mutombo upside his head.

"Pierce was unreal," Sixers forward Derrick Coleman said. "I don't think I've seen anybody shoot like that in my [11-year] career."

It seems comments about the Celtics heart out of the Sixers camp spurred Boston to play with a greater sense of urgency, and once the cat was let out of the bag it was game over.

"Questioning their decision-making would've been understandable," Celtics assistant John Carroll said afterward. "Their heart? Paul's heart? Never!"