BOSTON -- With each step they take, it hits Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett a little bit more, their emotions now at full tilt.
In Detroit after clinching a conference championship with an even bigger prize in their sights, Pierce started a chant among his teammates. "Beat L.A.," the Inglewood native said almost giddily, encouraging his teammates to join in, over and over, "Beat L.A."
They are in the NBA Finals -- where destiny and determination paired together in restoring the long-dormant green mystique and materialized a glamour matchup against the Lakers.
"We are up against, right now, the best team in the NBA, playing the best basketball," Pierce matter-of-factly said of the Lakers on Monday.
The Celtics took a meandering path to reach the Finals, playing 20 games over three series.
"That's probably why we're considered the underdogs, but we're relishing that role," Pierce said.
But when the dream NBA Finals pairing had just manifested from reverie to reality, Pierce openly drifted back to a year ago, wondering how he and his team have come so far so fast.
The Celtics and Lakers faced similar problems after last season, one that nearly preceded another year of discontent. Pierce headlined in the Boston role of downtrodden superstar, only a nudge away from requesting a trade. Danny Ainge costarred as beleaguered general manager, taking heat from fans and media alike.
Then, with the unlucky bounce of a pingpong ball, luck found them.
After the Celtics received the fifth draft pick, despite having the league's second-to-worst record, co-owner Wyc Grousbeck lingered in the lottery's ball room for 50 minutes, feeling crestfallen for his staff, his fans and himself. There would be no Greg Oden, no Kevin Durant as a savior.
Instead, with Ainge doing some quick maneuvering, they traded the pick to Seattle to land Ray Allen. That paved the way for another piece, Garnett, introduced in his role as the trading chip that changed it all.
At Garnett's news conference, Grousbeck noticed him soaking in each Celtics championship banner, as though he were "trying to draw power from it. I knew [then] this had a chance to be a special team, a real contender, for the next four or five years," Grousbeck said.
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"Why not the Lakers?"
The question is posed to Garnett in London, where the Celtics gathered last fall for some exhibition games. The Lakers had tried to pry Garnett free last summer, offering a package headlined by Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum.
