BOSTON – For all the clutch work he did scoring for the Boston Celtics in their Game 5 win, Paul Pierce‘s best play of the night was a catch and pass.

The Celtics were coming out of a timeout with 38.9 seconds to play and clinging to an 87-82 lead when Pierce ran up the sideline and caught a long pass from Kevin Garnett, and without so much as a hitch in his throw as he was falling out-of-bounds, Pierce fired a bullet pass to a streaking Rajon Rondo, who finished the play with a reverse layup.

“I was just showing off my Randy Moss and Tom Brady in one play, that’s all,” Pierce said after torching the Lakers for a team-high 27 points on 12-for-21 shooting. “Going up to catch it, then I went to my Brady move when I was falling out-of-bounds to find Rondo on the receiving end.”

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It was the game-clinching play for the Celtics on a night that saw them make dozens of crucial hustle plays that helped them survive Kobe Bryant‘s offensive onslaught.

“It was all instinctive,” Pierce said. “I took off long, and that was part of the play. We tried to get Ray [Allen] the ball and I think Kevin saw Derek Fisher was on me so he just threw it up. I know I was on the sideline falling out and I turned and I saw Rondo streaking and I was able to it to him and he made a great play.”

Pierce might not have a career as a travel agent, since he’s botched the Celtics’ last two trips he planned — he promised they weren’t going back to LA in this series after they won Game 2, and yet here he is ready to head back to Los Angeles for Games 6 and possibly 7.

But there might some football in his future, if you let him tell it.

“Paul has said for years that he can play for the Patriots,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers joked. “Maybe we might have to believe him.”

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Source: NBA.com