A collective groan and then silence came over the TD Banknorth Garden crowd, with 6:49 when Kobe Bryant scored on a baseline runner and Celtics forward Paul Pierce went down in a heap.
Pierce inadvertently got hit in his right knee by teammate Kendrick Perkins and after lying on the floor for a couple of minutes, he was carried into the tunnel, then put in a wheel chair and pushed into the locker room.
But at the 5:04 mark, a huge roar went up. Pierce walked out of the tunnel on back to the bench. Seconds later, he was back in the game.
With 1:25 left in the quarter, Pierce buried a 3-pointer from the right wing and then 22 seconds later, spotted up and banged down another 3-pointer from near the same spot and you could not hear your seat partner next to you, the crowd noise being that loud.
