BOSTON -- Paul Pierce shook his head, gazed in the distance and admitted what was blatantly obvious, yet still startlingly true.

Never in his life had he seen anything like this.

	Pierce

His Celtics had trailed by as many as 26, including 21 entering the fourth quarter. They were dead. Buried. And worst of all, getting booed at home. And yet some 20 minutes later, here was Pierce, sitting at a podium and discussing Boston's 94-90 victory.

"Amazing," he said, fumbling for words to explain what had just happened. "I'm stunned. This is probably -- no, definitely -- the most incredible comeback I've been a part of. I don't know what to say."

He wasn't alone. His coach admitted he didn't know how to describe it. So did most of his teammates. Even 84-year-old Red Auerbach, the man, the myth, the legend himself, dressed in a blue sport coat and a green three-leaf clover pin, couldn't adequately put this nonsense into words.

And for good reason. A comeback like this (or collapse, if you're a Nets fan) had never happened before.

Ever.

In the history of the NBA playoffs, teams that entered the fourth quarter trailing by 19 or more were 0-171.

But then came Saturday night. Who said Celtic Pride had vanished in the new Fleet Center? Who said the ghosts of the old Garden didn't stick around and suddenly decide to exorcise a little magic of their own on this night?

Those folks are nuts. This win had more ferry dust, more Celtic pride, Boston magic, than just about anything Cousy, Russell or Bird pulled out of their magic hats. Just ask the man himself.

"This is one of the most gratifying wins we have ever had," said Auerbach, the team president. "Is it the best game? Hardly. We stunk it up pretty bad for three quarters. But it was one of the best wins I've ever seen. It rates right up there with any of them.

"We were playing so bad for so long, I didn't even dream we'd come back. Never."

And for good reason. The Celtics looked terrible. Like they were more interested in the Yankees-Red Sox game finishing up a few miles away than the challenge at hand. They shot a horrid 14-percent in the first quarter, 27-percent in the first half.

After a halftime speech in which O'Brien told his team "we stink," little improved, as a 20-point Nets lead jumped to 26. There were airballs. Airpasses. Balls dribbled off shoes. Off legs. The body language was even worse, as the Celtics lollygagged to each huddle with little regard for what was happening on the court.

"But all of the sudden ..." Auerbach said.

All of the sudden, the Celtics showed some pride. They acted like they cared. And Antoine Walker got in the face of each of his teammates -- especially a struggling Paul Pierce -- to challenge that pride.

Walker's tirade, which came at the end of the third quarter, after the Celtics had cut a 25-point lead to 21, was the match that lit the fire in each of the Celtics.

"Antoine said they weren't respecting us in our house," center Eric Williams said. "There were a lot of smiles, a lot of laughter and joy coming from (the Nets), but the game wasn't over. And he was irritated by that."

Walker specifically called out Pierce, getting inches away from the face of his co-captain, to tell him, "take over this damn game."

"I just wanted him to continue to fight," Walker said. "I felt like Paul was bailing them out. Like he wasn't playing the game that he's capable of playing."

At the time, interestingly enough, a motivational message was playing on the Fleet Center scoreboard. It was a clip from the movie "Any Given Sunday," where Al Pacino, the head coach, gives his team a motivational halftime speech.

"The inches we need to win this game are everywhere around us," Pacino said. "And when we add up all those inches, that's the difference between winning and losing."

While that speech fired up the crowd, Walker's speech motivated Pierce. The Celtics star, who was 2-of-14 from the field with nine points at the end of the third, busted loose for 19 fourth-quarter points, on 6-of-7 from the floor and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.

He was clearly more aggressive, often slicing between two and three defenders to get to the basket for a layup or, at worst, earn a trip to the free-thrown line.

And while he stole the show on offense, his team unified on defense to frustrate the Nets and take them out of the offensive rhythm they had through the first three quarters.

Pierce's aggressiveness on offense and Boston's tenacity on D keyed a 10-0 run that helped the Celts believe a comeback was possible.

"We gained confidence as the quarter went on," Pierce said. "It was like nobody wanted to shoot the ball. And as we got closer and we got more aggressive, they became intimidated."

Part of that was the deafening crowd. Of the fans that had earlier booed the Celtics off the floor at halftime, barely anyone left. And those who stayed had their voices cranked up to full volume.

"My ears hurt," Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. "My staff was trying to communicate to me and it was almost like they were kissing my ear to try to communicate and yell."

Said Williams: "The crowd is what carried us. And what I think altered a few of their shots."

After the 10-0 run to start the final quarter, the teams traded baskets until the 5:46 mark, when, trailing by 12, the Celtics went on a 20-4 run to close out the game.

In this game, the belief that a team that makes a large comeback doesn't have the gas to close it out was nonsense. Boston made 14 of 16 free throws in the final 5:00. The Nets, meanwhile, made just one field goal and a pair of free throws in that same stretch.

The result? The largest come-from-behind victory in NBA playoff history. And a handful of speechless Celts.

"This is crazy. This is nuts," Kenny Anderson said. "I mean, stuff like this doesn't happen in pro basketball."

Maybe not -- unless you're a Celtic.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com.