No team has ever come back from more than a 24-point deficit in a Finals game, and only two teams have come back from a deficit of that size: Boston and the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks. No team has clinched the Finals with a greater margin of victory than the Celtics notched in that Game 6 massacre in The Garden. Since 2008, no team has come close to achieving what Pierce’s Celtics achieved in their singlehanded dismantling of the Lakers.

And while we’re talking ‘what if’s’, I suppose you could ask what would’ve happened if Red Auerbach had found a guy like Jerry West to replace him-if Paul Pierce had joined a well-run Celtics team, not a train wreck.