Said Pierce: “I was more disappointed in letting my teammates down, that’s the first thing I said when I went to the locker room. When you put yourself in a situation that you can control and it hurts your team, that’s what I was most upset about, and I can’t do that. I’m too important to this team to be putting myself in those situations.”

Pierce was assessed two technical fouls in a span of 59 seconds covering separate incidents with James Jones and Dwayne Wade. Pierce went on to say: “I thought I was fouled excessively on both plays actually. I thought there should have been a flagrant on both [Jones and Wade], but it’s up to me to keep my composure.”

Moments like this are going to happen and this is not the reason why the Celtics lost the game. The Celtics dodged a bullet when the NBA decided not to issue a suspension for Paul Pierce and Pierce has to be better at keeping his composer. This series is only going to get more intense as the games go on.