The clock was turned back some 20 years Wednesday night in Boston, only the parquet floor wasn't the Boston Garden, and the names and faces have changed.

But as the Celtics wore out the Pistons 90-78 in what is known as the TD Banknorth Garden, the elbows flying, smack-talking, technical fouls and the stakes involved were all reminiscent of the days of yore when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish et al, protected their house against the likes of Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman.

In this day and age of NBA when triple-digit scoring has become the norm again, coach Doc Rivers had the Celts prove their defensive toughness against the best defensive team in the league. It gave the Celtics a 2-1 victory in the regular-season series and allowed them to become the first team to clinch a playoff spot. Even more importantly, it moved their NBA-best record to 47-12, while the Pistons fell to 44-17 in what appeared to be the last best chance for the Pistons to make a move on the top seed in the East.

Kevin Garnett was magnificent for Boston, setting the tone immediately with the first two buckets on the way to a game-high 31 points, while young center Kendrick Perkins had a career-best 20 rebounds to go along with his 10 points. The Celtics never trailed, jumping out to a 17-3 lead, with four of the five Boston starters contributing offensively.

Meanwhile, young point guard Rajon Rondo, with recently signed veteran Sam Cassell ready to dress in the next game and destined to steal major chunks of time from him, showed he's not about to give up his minutes without a fight. Rondo, with 16 points himself, hounded All-Star Chauncey Billups all night into 4-of-12 shooting, and only 14-of-15 free throws allowed Billups to garner 23 points (18 of them in the third quarter). Old UConn buddies - Boston's Ray Allen and Detroit's Rip Hamilton - were at war all night. Allen, one of the premier shooters in the game, drew a technical for firing an elbow to Hamilton's chest in the first quarter to set the tone, but it was Allen who had one of his worst career games with just 3 points on 1-of-9 shooting, while Hamilton did manage 15.

Nonetheless, the Pistons offense was sad, with the exception of Rasheed Wallace battling Garnett inside and out for 23 points. The Pistons didn't hit double figures until just more than two minutes left in the first quarter and seemed fortunate to be within 40-27 by halftime. Billups had his big third quarter - based on 11 free throws without a miss, and they battled into a tie 70 seconds into the final quarter.

But Detroit went dead again, scoring just nine more points the rest of the way. It was old school, in-your-face defense from the Celts, with Rondo all over Billups, Perkins tough in the middle, extendo-man Garnett scouring the entire floor and Paul Pierce draining jumpers on the offensive end. The Celtics wanted to silence the critics that insist when all is said and done the Pistons are the toughest team in the East.

Granted, the Pistons have the experience together, and they have been to the conference finals five years in a row. But they've looked bad the past couple of years down the stretch of the playoffs anyway, losing to the Heat and Cavs the past two seasons without reaching the Finals. It was just that kind of game Wednesday night, too, with them shooting just 36 percent from the floor and getting outrebounded 50-38.

More than that, the Celtics are just hungrier. They beat them in virtually every aspect of the game, and then in the final 5:38, after closing the deficit to one - 78-77 - the Pistons rolled over. They managed just one free throw the rest of the way, outscored 12-1, missing all six of their field-goal attempts and turning the ball over three times.

The clich