Projo Sports Blog

By KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES – You have Cousy dribbling out the clock, Havlicek’s steal, Russell beating Chamberlain and Bird shooting down Magic and the Lakers. Now Boston Celtics’ fans have memories of The Comeback to cherish forever.
The current version of the Celtics wrote a new, exciting chapter in the storied franchise’s history last night and took their most important step yet to world championship banner No. 17 in the process. The Celts rallied from a 24-point deficit and pinned an unlikely 97-91 victory on a stunned group of Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center.
The 24-point comeback is the largest in the history of the NBA Finals, or at least since the league began keeping track of such things in 1971. Boston now holds a commanding 3-1 lead in the series and will play for the title on Sunday night. No team has ever dug out of a 3-1 hole to win the championship.
“It’s a dream if I can come out here and win on Sunday,” said Paul Pierce, who sparked the big comeback with tough defense on L.A.’s Kobe Bryant. “I don’t even know what to think about that. It’s definitely a great win, one that you’re going to put up there in the library and break out one day for your kids to watch. But I want nothing more than that ring right now and I’m not going to get over-excited.”
Boston was in deep trouble in this one as the Lakers seemingly had all of their weapons firing in the game’s first 30 minutes. But the Celtics rallied in the third quarter with a crucial 21-3 spurt and then took control of the game with an 11-2 run midway through the fourth. With the game on the line in the final two minutes, the Celts iced the game with a huge wing 3-pointer from James Posey and a Ray Allen dribble-drive move past Sasha Vujacic with 20 seconds to play.
Pierce rebounded from a sub-par Game Three and led the Celtics with 20 points. Allen added 19, Posey came up huge with 18 and Kevin Garnett contributed 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Lamar Odom was the catalyst for the Lakers, especially in an outstanding first half where all of his varied skills were on display. The Lakers raced to leads of 22 points in the first quarter, 24 in the second and still led by 20 with six minutes to play in the third quarter. Odom led the Lakers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kobe Bryant shot 6-of-19 and was held to 17 points.
Bryant wore his disappointment – and anger – on his sleeve in a post-game news conference where he couldn’t defend his team’s collapse.
“We just wet the bed. A nice big one, too. One of the ones you can’t put a towel over. It was terrible,” he said. “Nothing you can do about it. They played great in the third quarter, we played like crap.”
Asked what he would do to get over the loss, Bryant answered “a lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple shots, maybe like 20 of them. Digest it and get back to work tomorrow. Nothing you can do.”
Why this game turned so violently was hard to figure. They Lakers put it on the Celts early and Odom was the dominant player. He scored or assisted on L.A.’s first six baskets as the Lakers raced to a 16-6 lead. He knifed inside for layups, flew across the baseline for dunks and fired Magic Johnson-like passes from the high post to Pau Gasol for easy scores.
Just as important, Odom did much of his early work against Garnett. He breezed past Garnett for the game’s first hoop and then snatched an offensive rebound over Garnett while being fouled at the 6:05 mark of the quarter. The two early fouls sent Garnett to the bench with his team trailing by 10 points.
Things only got uglier for the Celtics with Garnett on the pine. An 11-6 deficit quickly became 26-7 with Odom scoring 13 points. Pierce’s layup at 2:30 of the quarter halted the run but the Celts kept missing and finished the quarter shooting a putrid 27 percent from the floor. Just as damaging, the Celtics watched the Lakers drop in 65 percent of their shots as they rolled to a 35-14 lead.
The Celtics fell behind by a whopping 24 points (45-21) after six minutes of the second quarter and trailed 58-40 at halftime. The Celts actually cut the deficit to 45-33 after a 12-0 run but the Lakers finished strong with Pau Gasol scoring twice and Jordan Farmar banking in a 25-foot prayer at the buzzer.
What the Celtics did see at halftime was the effects of improved defense. After watching the Lakers slice and dice them in the first quarter, the Celts held L.A. to 38 percent in the second. Then Pierce stood up at the half and made a bold request.
“Paul came to me at halftime and said `I want to guard Kobe. Let me guard him. I’m foul-less. I can be physical with him,’’ said coach Doc Rivers.
The move was a gamble. Ray Allen had held Bryant without a field goal (0-of-3) in the first half and was more than confident he could keep doing the job. But he was more than happy to hand Bryant off.
“I knew what he was trying to do and I would have suggested it a long time ago but it took for Paul to say `let me guard him,’’ said Allen. “When he said that I knew he was ready for the challenge so I was like `let’s do it, take him.’’
While Bryant scored 14 second half points, the challenge got Pierce going, too. He scored 14 in the half with five assists and played with an aggressive chip on his shoulder. Down 70-50 with 6:04 to play, the Celtics went to work. Rivers decided to spread the floor with his best shooters and go on the attack and the move worked wonders as Pierce, Eddie House (11 points), Posey and Garnett all made key shots as Boston closed the quarter with a stirring 21-3 run to trail by only two points, 73-71. The Laker offense shut down with Bryant missing five of his seven shots, Odom shooting only once and everyone else bricking their way to 28 percent (5-of-18) shooting.
“We were playing without poise,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said about the third quarter slide. “We didn’t have confidence in our execution skills at that time. We got out of character at that time and they got us a little bit scattered.”
The Lakers were ahead, 81-77, with 5:48 left but the Celtics charged with a crushing 11-2 run that that turned the game in their favor for good. Posey began the run with a corner 3-pointer. Garnett hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 83-82 and a 20-foot wing jumper by House gave the Celts their first lead of the game. A sweet reverse layup by Ray Allen and a tough move by Garnett past Pau Gasol made it 88-83.
Bryant hit two free throws and a lane drive to cut it to 89-87 with 1:30 to play but Posey answered with a monster 3-pointer to push the lead back to 92-87. It was a three-point game with 40 seconds left when Allen waved off a Garnett pick, called for a clear-out and beautifully zig-zagged past Vujacic for a layup with 16 seconds to play that iced the improbable comeback win.

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