Tom E. Curran • E-mail

BOSTON - Do you know how much time the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls spent trying to pry each other’s fingers off the playoff ledge since April 18?

In real time, it was 20 hours and 36 minutes.

And do you know how Celtics captain Paul Pierce began his postgame interview after the Celtics finished off the Bulls 109-99 in Game 7 of this first-round epic?

“Let’s make this quick, I gotta go home and watch the fight.”

Quick? The nerve. And fight? Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton for 36 minutes at the most? No, this series was a fight. And it wasn’t settled for good until Boston asserted itself with a backbreaking 22-2 run at the end of the first half, a run that turned a 36-30 deficit into a 52-38 halftime lead. The Celtics never trailed after that.

So the classic ends. Epic game after epic overtime game (there were four OT games out of the seven and seven total overtime periods). The “Can you top this” moments were stacked up to the rafters in both buildings. Now it’s over for the Bulls. And for the defending champion Celtics, the reward is a showdown with the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Without Kevin Garnett at their disposal, the Celtics' demise — let’s be honest — seems imminent.

“We didn't win either game against Orlando without Kevin,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers (Boston won two with Garnett). “We have to go back and find out why.”

They don’t have much time to do so. The best-of-seven series begins Monday night in Boston, about 44 hours after the Celtics left their locker room Sunday morning.

With that in mind, Rivers made an executive decision before Game 7 tipped off.

“We had books (scouting reports on the Magic) put in their cars before the game,” Rivers said. “We’ll give them the day off (Sunday) and they can get in those books and be ready to go Monday.”

Asked about the quick turnaround after this marathon series, Pierce shrugged and said, “It’s similar to last year (when Boston went from a seven-game series with Atlanta right into a matchup with Cleveland). I’d rather keep playing anyway.”

Can’t blame him. Especially if all the Celtics keep playing as they did Saturday night. For six games, Boston relied on heroic efforts from Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen while Celtics bench players were mostly MIA.

Saturday, Boston got some chip-in with 30 points from their bench, 16 from knife-twister Eddie House, who hit four massive 3-pointers.

Stephon Marbury, who seemed terrified to shoot and execute when he took over for Rondo in earlier games, was on the floor for much of Boston’s big second-quarter run.

During that stretch, “We turned into the Celtics again and started playing defense," Rivers said. "I told them that multiple stops mean multiple scores.”

And the player Boston had to stop multiple times was Ben Gordon. Coming out unconscious and shooting without conscience, Gordon scored 17 of Chicago’s first 32 points.

Slideshow   Title town A look at the 17 championships the Boston Celtics have won. NBCSports.com

But he cooled considerably midway through the second quarter and, while he finished with 33 points (15 of 15 from the free-throw line), the leaning 3s and off-glass floaters he’d been making for six games didn’t fall Saturday night. He went 7 for 23 from the floor, 2 for 14 after halftime.

“I was trying to ride that wave for as long as I could, but I wasn’t really able to sustain it,” Gordon said.

Neither was the silent but deadly John Salmons, who went 2 for 8 after halftime and 3 for 12 in the game. Key scorers going 10 for 35 even against a Celtics team without Garnett would not get it done.

But even without Garnett, Boston has a boatload of experience to draw upon, even with their young players. Remember, last year their road to the title included two seven-game series and two six-game series.

“It absolutely kicked in,” Rivers said of Boston’s playoff experience. “They got off to a great start … and we weathered their storm and just hung in there. And finally (in) the second quarter we made a run, so I’m assuming it had to have something to do with it. Paul and Ray ... they’ve been in the league for 50 years, so it had to have some benefit for us.”

That Celtics will need to dig into that well of experience again against the Magic. Orlando, no doubt, will smell blood on the wounded and weary Celtics. How long can Boston hold them off without Garnett and Leon Powe with a man-child like Howard running wild under the glass? Can they hold them off at all?

“We’re still the champs until somebody knocks us off,” reminded Pierce.

And with that, he was off. To watch the fight.

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