"The Celtics were trailing Miami by 13 points in the fourth quarter when official Ed Malloy choked under the playoff pressure and hit Paul Pierce with a technical foul, essentially tossing the captain from Game 1 Sunday afternoon.

There were seven minutes left in the game. The crowd was in a frenzy. Dwayne Wade was on fire. James Jones couldn't miss from 3-point range. Rajon Rondo still was playing like he'd consumed some bad stone crab Saturday night. And the Celtics were showing about as much life as bin Laden's small circle of friends.

The game was all but over, so this is not on the list of top 50 reasons the Celtics lost Sunday afternoon. We'll get to those, but we still have to ask:

What did Pierce do to deserve a second technical foul? Did the NBA make some kind of rule change between the first series and this one? Why didn't I get an e-mail?

We have checked the replay and we can confirm: Pierce didn't take a swing at Wade. He didn't shove him or head-butt him or even gently face-rub his opponent, the strange maneuver that earned Pierce his first technical foul a minute earlier. Pierce has done some dumb things in big moments in the past, but this wasn't one of them. This was, in fact, nothing.

Pierce didn't lay a finger on the opposing player after the whistle, nor did he direct his anger toward Malloy. He didn't throw gum or spit or flash a secret gang sign. He just said a few words to Wade, who had just run hard into the pick Pierce set along the baseline. Next thing Pierce knew, Malloy was directing him to the Celtics locker room.

"It's what we call a verbal taunt," official Dan Crawford said."