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The NBA Finals. Two-point game. Forty seconds left. The Celtics desperately need a bucket to stave off what would have been a historic comeback by the Lakers.

Boston works the ball to the guy who, a few days ago, was taken off the court in a wheelchair. It's an obvious choice. Paul Pierce has been an alpha dog tonight. He has been moving well -- and in this moment works himself into a good look against Kobe Bryant. Pierce creates some space, before being fouled by Derek Fisher with 22.8 seconds left.

Even on his healthiest days, Pierce has creaky-looking free throw form. But the shots are both good, and the Celtics take a four-point lead.

The Lakers call timeout, and Doc Rivers tells the Celtics in the huddle to switch on every pick. Upon inbounding, the Lakers are picking and cutting like crazy, but no one's getting open.

There are mismatches all over the floor. The Lakers, flustered, waste precious seconds deducing what's happening.

The Lakers need to score twice. Ideally they'd get this first bucket instantly. But they can't even find anyone with room to operate. Nearly eight seconds run off the clock, a third of the remaining game, before they find a shot.

Sasha Vujacic -- a very capable 3-point shooter -- who has a look with Pierce scrambling to catch him.

Vujacic lets it fly, and Pierce leaps -- he's a long distance from Vujacic, but the ball's headed his way.

Perhaps they can meet in the middle? Pierce's trajectory is high, true, and athletic.

Pierce extends an arm and blocks the shot. James Posey collects the loose ball.

The Lakers hopes of evening the series at 1-1 have evaporated, as has the biggest story line of the Finals so far.

In the absence of an MRI, no one is certain what happened to Paul Pierce's knee on Thursday to cause the Celtics' star to writhe so on the court before being wheeled to the locker room. There is talk of damage to the meniscus, or strained ligaments. Partial ligament tears have been discussed as a possibility.

After the game, Pierce walks gingerly, both knees wrapped in large quantities of ice.

But now that he has put on a big show, with 28 points on 16 shots, eight assists, and four rebounds -- he was even Doc Rivers' pick to guard Kobe Bryant down the stretch -- the balky knee storyline has lost all steam.

Especially when you consider that the people who see him work out every day are not at all surprised that Pierce played so well.

"No surprise at all," says James Posey.

"When I saw him move east to west at the shootaround," says Sam Cassell, "I knew he was fine."

"I'm not surprised by Paul playing 40 minutes," says Coach Rivers. "I thought before the game he felt great. He looked great. So I liked what he was going to do."

This injury, this thing we have been obsessing about since Friday night -- What was it? Was it an embellishment? Was it a miraculous recovery? Was it a case of true grit?

What does Paul Pierce himself feel about it?

"I didn't really think about the injury," Says Pierce. "You hear the crowd, the adrenaline is going ... I didn't think about it. I just went out and played."

Well, if he's over it, it's hard to imagine many others will be able to keep up the concern.

Maybe now that he's certain to play no matter what, he can get that MRI, and series' biggest mystery can become a medical footnote, instead of a central storyline.