AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Isiah Thomas scored 8 of his 17 points in overtime Friday night, sparking the Detroit Pistons into the Eastern Conference finals with a 117-113 victory over the Boston Celtics.
The victory allowed the Pistons to win the best-of-seven series 4-2 and advance to the conference finals for the fifth straight season. Detroit will play Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals in Chicago on Sunday.
Thomas, who missed a try for the winning basket at the buzzer ending regulation, hit a three-point goal with 2:25 remaining in overtime to give the Pistons their first lead of the extra period.
He put them ahead to stay 112-111 on a jumper from the top of the key with 1:41 left. Baskets by Bill Laimbeer and Thomas extended Detroit's lead to 116-111 with 25 seconds to go.
Kevin McHale led Boston, which overcame a 17-point deficit in the third quarter, with 34 points. Reggie Lewis had 23 points and Dee Brown added 21 for the Celtics. Robert Parish, who sprained his left ankle during and played only 12 minutes in Game 5, did not play Friday night.
Joe Dumars scored 25 of his 32 points in the first half for the Pistons, while James Edwards had 17 points and Laimbeer added 15.
Detroit used an 8-0 run to stretch a six-point halftime advantage into an 80-63 lead with 3:37 left in the third quarter.
The Celtics answered with a 12-2 spurt in the final 3:24 of the third quarter to slice the margin to 82-75 going into the fourth quarter.
Another 7-2 surge, triggered by a pair of layups and a free throw by Brown, cut the Detroit lead to 84-82 with 10:35 left in the fourth quarter, but Mark Aguirre and John Salley each hit a pair of buckets in an 8-2 burst by Detroit that put the Pistons ahead 92-84 with 8:11 remaining.
A layup by Brown, Larry Bird's jumper from the top of the key and a pair of free throws by Bird with 2:13 left gave Boston its first lead of the game at 100-99.
Edwards put the Pistons back in front with a pair of free throws, but Lewis converted a three-point play when he was fouled on a layup with 1:40 left to give the Celtics a 103-101 lead. Dumars' first points of the fourth quarter tied the score and Boston had an apparent basket nullified with 58.2 seconds left when McHale was called for offensive interference.
McHale fouled Edwards with 43.4 to play and he sank two free throws to give Detroit a 105-103 lead. Bird missed a jumper from the free-throw line and Dumars grabbed the rebound. He was fouled and missed both free throws with 21.4 seconds to go.
Lewis, who had 11 points in the fourth quarter, rebounded his own miss to tie the score 105-105 with 7.8 seconds left and Thomas missed a shot from inside the key at the buzzer to force the overtime.
McHale scored Boston's last 11 points of the first half, including a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining, to pull the Celtics within 56-50 at halftime. McHale had 15 of Boston's 27 points in the second quarter.
Boston missed its first six shots from the floor as Detroit jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never trailed in the first half.
Dumars hit seven of his first eight shots from the field and had 16 points in the first quarter.
A pair of three-pointers and a layup by Dumars accounted for all the Pistons' points in an 8-0 run that put Detroit ahead 19-8.
The Celtics outscored the Pistons 7-2 in the last minute of the first quarter to cut the lead to 29-23 at the end of the period.
