Among all the things to savor in the magnificent NBA Eastern Conference semifinal Game 7 between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers won by the Celts, 97-92, the thing that I found most interesting was that one of the most crucial plays turned out to be an element of the  game that's become almost quaint.

It wasn't a three-point rainbow, or a lightning quick move to the basket or a powerful rebound follow -- it was a jump ball. A jump ball! In today's game, jump balls are an anachronism, a throwback to a time when basketball players got the nickname cagers because the courts were actually enclosed with cages.

Yesterday's jump ball occurred with Boston ahead by three points and about 1:20 left in the game. The Cavs had just missed a shot and Cleveland's 7-foot-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Boston's 6-foot-8 James Posey wound up on the floor clutching the basketball. Jump ball.

As much as Cleveland's LeBron James and Boston's Paul Pierce slugged it out offensively yesterday -- James with 45 points and Pierce with 41 -- this might have been their most classic   matchup moment of the entire game. The Cavs' Ilgauskas clearly wanted the ball to get to James but Pierce dove headlong for the loose tip and snared it as he hit the floor screaming in triumph. Neither team scored for nearly another minute until Boston's Ray Allen made a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left to give the Celtics a five-point lead.

There were certainly many dramatic moments as that game wound down but the scrum for that tip-off proved that sometimes, those old-school skills still come in handy.