The Morning After: Clippers Fall to Celtics
5) Paul Pierce’s emotional homecoming
Today was practically “Paul Pierce Day” in the TD Garden, as it was his last career game that will be played in Boston. The Celtics franchise and fans were extremely ecstatic and appreciative of his return, and showed it in many different ways.
Before the game, Celtics fans welcomed Pierce with a well-deserving thunderous cheer as the announcer called his name in the starting lineups (yes, he started). As expected, he played the first five minutes of the game before Luc Mbah a Moute took his place. During the timeout when he sat, the Celtics organization honored his legacy by playing an emotional video tribute for him, bringing tears to his eyes as well as many others in attendance and watching.
In addition, it seemed like Celtics fans were chanting his name the entire game. From chants like “play-Paul-Pierce” to “we-want-Paul” to just straight up chanting his name, Boston fans were begging for him to get back on the floor. They got their way at the end of the game, as he replaced a worn out Griffin just after the game slipped from the Clippers fingertips.
Probably the only good thing that came from this game– Pierce hit a three pointer during the closing seconds of his last game in Boston.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”und” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThisIsWhyWePlay?src=hash”>#ThisIsWhyWePlay</a> <a href=”https://t.co/azXTH8LXvJ”>pic.twitter.com/azXTH8LXvJ</a></p>— NBA (@NBA) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NBA/status/828368776018194432″>February 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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