Resurrection is right. But what does that knee feel like this morning? Maybe I'm just getting old, but I know that when I get a sprain, they don't just go away in a few days - they tighten up and feel much worse the days immediately following.

Now, I don't have an army of sports doctors tending to my injuries, and maybe with enough warming up and so on, Pierce will be able to overcome this, but as a Celtics fan, I'm worried that this is going to catch up with him for at least the next few games of the series. Maybe all of them, because the stress of upcoming games won't help him heal - in fact, might aggravate the problem.

I hope I'm wrong about all of that. I don't think we'll see much visible evidence if he's in pain - he'll wisely hide it as best he can. But if he doesn't have the quick step, then Jackson can move his coverage elsewhere and better isolate other players.

What a great game, though! Neck and neck the whole way! If Pierce is OK, Celtics all the way! Isolating Kobe the way they did really took away the Laker's steam. OTOH, Kobe's percentages were terrible. Garnett wasn't so hot from outside either though. I give the series to whichever team overcomes their jitters and gets their shots to drop. It's going to be decided by percentages.

Rodian is right. Sprains like the one Pierce suffered tend to get much worse before they get better, and though Pierce was able to play last night I expect the knee swelled up overnight and might have to miss the next game. This is pure speculation based on a lifetime of basketball injuries, but whenever I sprained a knee or ankle I could almost always play again right away; the real trouble didn't come until a few days after the initial injury.

Remember the divisonal playoff game in Indy last season? Philip (yes, Philip) Rivers tears his ACL, gets a massive cortison injection, returns to the field in no time.

Don't get me wrong, Pierce gave an amazing performance last night, but that knee received more than a wrap.

Just speculation. Or, he's an actor.

The European Cup tournament begins tomorrow, hosted by Austria and Switzerland, and continues through the rest of the month. Greece won the 2004 final over Portugal. All games will be aired on ESPN channels and ABC. Here are the tables:

http://www.soccerway.com/international/europe/european-championships/

Group C looks like the group of death, where all four sides have a decent chance of advancing. The hosts will bring up the rear in their respective groups. My prediction: The final will be decided by PKs.

Thankfully crushing boredom will be staved off this summer...I always dread the 3 1/2 month soccer off-season that occurs in the odd years. I guess that says a lot about my character...

Any thoughts on how lame UEFA is, managing to put France, Italy and Holland into the same division? I mean, France was put in the jar as a 4-seed? And Austria as a 1? Should make for some interesting games, but I can imagine few things worse than being eliminated by France in the group stage. uggghhh.

OT: Is it just me, or is Magic Johnson looking more and more like the Human Beat Box from the Fat Boys?

More OT: BT and JR, this is a basketball thread! But I'll bite.

I don't think it's going to be nearly as cagey as 2004 (except for Netherlands-Czech Republic in the group stage, what a match!). It looks like teams are playing a much more attacking game, ditching Mourinho-style catenaccio. Even Italy and Spain are playing three up front.

Italy to win, Luca Toni golden boot. Russia are my dark horse team; England learned just how they can turn it on.

You forgot to mention if you had any second thoughts on your Lakers in 5 prediction. Do you see the Lakers winning 4 in a row?

I'm not saying that his knee wasn't hit and wasn't hurting, but it was nowhere near what he made it out to be. Pierce has a habit of overplaying injuries during games. If he doesn't have to pop back up to get back on defense he has a longstanding tendency of laying on the ground, prolonging the drama and thus getting a bigger pop from the audience when he does get up. At least twice during the series with the Pistons the cameras caught him laying there, milking it, and when his teammates came to pick him up he'd smile and say "I'm fine."

Pierce is a heckuva a player, no doubt. And obviously he's a bit attention starved from the years the Celtics sucked and the attention that Allen and Garnett have receive, but I'd respect him more if he just got up and played the game instead of acting for the crowd.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=5006810

"A convicted steroids dealer who recently met with NFL security officials and gave them names of players he said bought steroids from him was found shot to death in his home Thursday, police said."

now back to our regularly scheduled program...

I mean, France was put in the jar as a 4-seed? And Austria as a 1?

Austria got an automatic #1 seed as a co-host, so that explains that. As for France...well, nobody but UEFA seems to know that one. France quite understandably lodged an official complaint. I have a strong feeling that by the time Euro 2012's draw comes around the "co-efficient" which determined seeding will be a distant memory.

like the cortisone proposition and Pierce as a drama queen.

it's the NBA. Almost everyone in the league could be called a drama queen.

Cortisone injection? Lidocaine? Nonsense. Oh, he may have gotten those, but writhing on the floor in agony and having to be carried off...and two minutes later he's back hitting threes and beating his man back down the court? I don't think so.

Either he was acting or he is such a pussy (drama queen doesn't quite describe it) that heaven forbid he jam a finger, cuz they'd have to call the game. Sheesh.

By the way, if you check yesterday's letters, you'll see I called it Celtics win by 12. I was off by one bucket, and only cuz the C's held the ball at the end. My other prediction stands: Lakers in 6.

The Lakers are a great learning team. You won't see that performance again. You won't see tons of shots rattling out. You won't see offensive confusion. You'll see better rotation on pick and rolls, weak side defense and covering the spot-up threes.

And I'll bet a lot of Celtics fans were surprised to see that the Lakers can play some pretty withering defense, and to see Kobe pass the ball when he had wide open looks. These are not the Lakers you thought they were!

At least, that's this girl's opinion.