Celtics captain Paul Pierce says the team's reserves have been key to their postseason success.

"Somewhere along the line these guys that are role players that people don't really talk about come along and help us win games," Pierce said. "They really get overlooked."

Boston has gotten help from Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace and Nate Robinson in their run to the NBA Finals.

"If you look at our team over the last couple years, three years, we brought guys in the middle of the year to help us in these types of situations when we get to the playoffs," Pierce said. "Last year we were injured. The year before it was P.J. Brown who came up big and won a game for us versus Cleveland, and this year it was Nate."

When the Celtics won the title in 2008 they had Brown, James Posey, Leon Powe, Eddie House and Sam Cassell coming off the bench.