Boston, MA -- (Sports Network) - Paul Pierce and LeBron James engaged in an offensive battle for the ages, but it was Pierce's 41-point effort that led the Boston Celtics to a 97-92 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

James poured in 45 points on 14-of-29 shooting, but it was the Celtics who advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2002, thanks to another win in front of the Boston faithful. The Celtics have won all eight home games in the postseason, but thanks to an 0-6 road mark have twice had to win Game 7s to move on.

"We'll enjoy this, but as we advance it gets a little more difficult," said Kevin Garnett. "Detroit's obviously been resting and they've been waiting. We've played 14 hard games. We're emotionally drained more than anything."

The Pistons, five-game winners over the Orlando Magic, will visit Boston for Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday night. The series will shift back to Detroit for Game 3 next Saturday night.

Pierce made 13-of-23 from the field, 4-of-6 three-pointers, and 11-of-12 free throws for the Celtics.

"It's just one of those games where I had it going, LeBron had it going. We just didn't let up," Pierce said. "Neither one of us wanted our teams to lose tonight. Just to be a part of this and be on the winning side, it's a great feeling."

Garnett added 13 points and 13 rebounds, and P.J. Brown came off the bench and scored 10 points, including a clutch jumper with 1:21 to play that put the Celtics ahead by three.

Delonte West scored 15 points for the Cavs, who failed to defend their conference title from a year ago.

"I think last year at the end of the season when we lost four straight games in the Finals, I knew I had to get better extremely," James said. "Now I think, at the end of this season, I just need to just fine-tune the rest of my game."

The Cavs had several opportunities to either tie or go in front in the fourth quarter, but were never able to get over the hump. After a Brown tip shot gave the Celtics an 89-84 lead, Zydrunas Ilgauskas made two free throws, and James stole the ball from Pierce and slammed home a dunk to cut the Boston lead to 89-88 with 2:20 left.

Garnett missed a jumper, giving Cleveland a chance to move in front, but James settled for a contested three as the shot clock was winding down, which banged hard off the iron. Brown then nailed a wide-open jumper, putting the Celts back up by three with 1:21 to play.

With the Celtics defense collapsing on James, he dished to West, who missed a wide-open three. Another Garnett miss gave the Cavs the ball back, still down by three.

James drove left on Brown, and tried to make a circus shot and draw the foul. He did neither, and Cleveland had to foul. Ray Allen, who was largely absent for the Celtics during the series, calmly sank two free throws with 18.8 ticks left to push the Celtics lead to 93-88.

Pierce fouled James as the latter was driving the lane, but the Cleveland star missed the first free throw, only cutting the deficit to 93-89. Eddie House then made both his free throws with 16.2 seconds remaining to push Boston up 95-89.

Sasha Pavlovic drained a three from the corner with 8.6 seconds left, but Pierce made two more free throws -- the first one bounced high off the iron before swishing through -- sealing the Boston win with 7.9 seconds to go.

"That was Red (Auerbach) just looking over us," Pierce said of the lucky bounce on the first free throw, referring to the legendary Celtics coach. "I wish he was here today to be here with us. I just think that's him looking over us that guided that ball in. I think he kind of tapped it in our direction and it went through the net, and that put a smile on my face."

Pierce came out red-hot, and the Celtics ran out to an early 12-point edge. A 12-0 Celtics run, capped by a Rajon Rondo jumper, pushed Boston to a 16-4 lead with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

James answered with six straight points, though, and his technical free throw with one minute left, after a defensive three-second call on Garnett, cut the Boston edge to 16-13. Garnett dropped in a turnaround fadeaway, and the Celts took a five-point lead into the second quarter.

Pierce and James began their offensive dominance in the second. After each player scored nine points in the first frame, Pierce poured in 17 and James scored 14 in the second.

James didn't do most of his damage until the last 3:44 of the half, after a Pierce free throw put the Celtics up 40-27. No. 23 for Cleveland went off, though, scoring eight points down the stretch, including a three that cut the deficit to 46-38 with less than a minute to play. The Celtics took a 50-40 lead into the break.

The Cavs were able to shave five points off the deficit in the third quarter, outscoring the Celtics 28-23 in the frame to pull within 73-68 entering the fourth.

"I'm extremely proud of every single guy on this team," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "Everybody stepped up and contributed in their own way to help us try to get a win tonight."

Game Notes:

The Cavs again played without guard Daniel Gibson, who sat out the last two games of the series with a separated left shoulder that he suffered in the fourth quarter of Game 5...The Celtics lost the 2002 Eastern Conference finals in six games to the New Jersey Nets...Allen, who scored four points, shot 1- of-6 -- 0-for-2 from behind the arc -- in 29 minutes for the Celtics...James shot 14-of-19 from the free throw line. The Cavs shot 25-of-35 (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe.