In order to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA championship for banner number 17, the Celtics first needed to make it out of the challenging Eastern Conference. Prior to taking down LeBron James in the 2nd round and a former NBA championship team in the Pistons in the 3rd round, the pesky Atlanta Hawks, featuring among others a rookie Al Horford, took Boston to 7 games in round 1.
After winning the first two games of the series handily, the Celtics proceeded to lose three of the next four games. Everyone needed to step up in Game 7 and they did including the team's 23 year old starting center Kendrick Perkins.