Your Morning Dump... Where the Celts are Eastern Conference Champs

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“They made us both look bad,’’ said Van Gundy. “Cleveland was upset because they didn’t play well. We’re upset because we didn’t play well. But they’re just playing very well to go through two series like that. No. 1, they will get down and dirty on defense. No. 2, they are a very unselfish team on offense.’’

Globe - With their pedigree, it was a matter of time

Well, I'll be darned. Those gray beards in the green uniforms who frustrated us with their inconsistent play from November to April are four wins away from Banner 18.

How great is that quote from SVG? It sums up this team perfectly.

Doc Rivers deserves a ton of credit. Aside from the obvious move of preparing Nate Robinson to play last night, he pushed the right buttons all season long. Remember the "practice hard, play less minutes" strategy at the end of the regular season?

“I had seen unhealthy, and we were .500 unhealthy … We only had one shot at this.”

“I thought it was the right plan, but it didn’t look right because we were losing,” Rivers said. “But guys were resting and conditioning, and I thought that was the only chance we had.”

Yahoo! - Rivers plan leads Celtics to Finals

While he couldn't convince the media, he did convince his players they could achieve this.

On the injury front, Doc said he thinks Rondo will be fine, yet he's concerned about Rasheed's back spasms. I'm sure 5 full days off will cure most of this team's aches and pains.

On Page 2, kudos to Nate Robinson but the night belonged to Paul Pierce.

Pierce poured in a game-high 31 points on 9-of-15 shooting with 13 rebounds and 5 assists over 44:53. He erupted for 11 points in the third quarter, getting to the line for six freebies -- all of which he made -- while helping the Celtics build a 21-point cushion and coast to the finish line of the series.

But it was Pierce's work on the glass that really stood out to the coaching staff.

"The rebounding -- I said it earlier, if you want to see how Paul Pierce is playing, go to the rebound numbers," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "If those numbers are high, that means he's playing well."

ESPN Boston - Postgame notes

It was a money performance by a money player. In his column this morning (see link on Page 1) Bob Ryan compared Pierce to Bird and Havlicek. He was right on.

The rest of the links:

Globe - A shot at Banner 18 | Robinson emerges as star pupil | Despite pains, gains made | Herald - Cs finally done kidding around | Celtics are no Bruins | Rivals give Green their due | ESPN Boston - Finals tickets on sale June 2 | Rivers savings plan pays dividends | Cs knock off another favorite | WEEI - 5 reasons the Cs won Game 6 | Guess who's heading back to the Finals? | Magic lost control from the start | Yahoo! - Road to redemption |