Category: NBA Playoffs Blog

The AP reports:

Glen “Big Baby” Davis led the Celtics bench on a game-changing run Thursday night, scoring half of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as Boston pulled away from the Los Angeles Lakers to win 96-89 and knot the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

“This is what legends are made of, this is where you grasp the moment,” Davis said. “Just play in the moment.” …

“We know what to do. We know how to play. We know how to get it done,” said Lakers forward Pau Gasol, who scored 21 points to go with a game-high 33 for Kobe Bryant. “And we know how important Game 5 will be, so we’ve just got to get ourselves mentally and physically ready … to accomplish our mission.”

Pierce scored 19 points, Kevin Garnett had 13 and Ray Allen bounced back from a seven-quarter shooting slump to score 12 points for Boston. But the new Big Three that led the Celtics to their unprecedented 17th NBA title in 2008— beating the Lakers in the finals—was on the bench for much of the fourth-quarter run that gave Boston the lead for good…

Nate Robinson scored 12 points in 17 minutes as the Celtics’ bench outscored the Lakers’ 36-18. Ten of L.A.’s bench points came from Lamar Odom, who played 39 minutes after starting center Andrew Bynum tested his sore knee but did not play in the second half…

Ray Allen finished 4 for 11 from the field—missing all four 3-pointers, but scored 10 points in the second half.

The Boston Globe blog reports:

“I just felt like a beast,’’ Davis said. “Really, I’m going to be honest with you. I just felt like I couldn’t be denied — rebound. If a rebound was in my vicinity, or like if the ball was going to be held up, you know, I just felt like I just couldn’t be denied.

“There’s not too many times you get a chance to be in the Finals and be a part of something so great that you can never really imagine yourself even being here. I just couldn’t be denied today.’’

Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe reports:

Rasheed Wallace was one of the catalysts in the fourth-quarter charge that helped the Celtics tie the NBA Finals at 2-2 with a 96-89 win over the Lakers last night, but he walked away from the win with his sixth technical foul of the playoffs, leaving him one shy of an automatic one-game suspension.

He picked up the technical with 7:25 to go in the fourth, exaggeratedly shocked at being called for a foul on Kobe Bryant under the basket. There have been times in the Finals when Wallace was so shocked by calls that his face lit up in equal parts surprise and outrage, high-stepping and dancing away from both the play and the officials.

Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reports:

Bryant nearly found a way to carry the Lakers to victory last night, using long, contested 3-pointers as his weapon, but it wasn’t his preferred weapon. Bryant, of course, would rather dash to the basket for acrobatic layups, or drive, stop, and lean back for fadeaways.

The Celtics have to allow Kobe to score; they have no choice because he remains unstoppable. But they are using stifling defense to force Bryant into an uncomfortable zone. He looks irritated. He looks frustrated, just as he was when Artest missed his pass two consecutive times.

Bryant scored 33 points in the Celtics’ 96-89 Game 4 victory, but 18 came on 3-pointers. Bryant converted no layups; his closest field goal was from 9 feet. He is not creating baskets with his quickness and array of moves. The Celtics are sending two defenders at him and he is attempting shots in those small windows, such as the ones Artest missed in the second half.

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports:

The Lakers found out Thursday how much Andrew Bynum meant to them, fading in the second half against the more physical Celtics, 96-89, and finding themselves pulled into a 2-2 deadlock in the Finals.

The Lakers’ center had only two points and three rebounds in 12 injury-shortened minutes, the 22-year-old unable to muster much because of a swollen right knee.

It didn’t help that the Celtics’ reserves thoroughly outplayed those of the Lakers, that Lamar Odom did next to nothing and Kobe Bryant looked fatigued, according to Coach Phil Jackson.

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports:

Beyond Bryant and Gasol, Odom was the only other player in double figure-scoring for the Lakers, finishing with 10 points but taking only one rebound in 22 minutes in the second half.

The Lakers held a 45-42 edge at halftime but were eventually undone by scoring only 17 points in the third quarter and giving up 36 points in the fourth.

“They got all the energy points, the hustle points, second-chance points, points in the paint, beat us to the loose balls,” Bryant said. “I mean, that’s how the game turned around.”

Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times reports:

There was nothing subtle about it. The Celtics were more physical and played harder.

The Lakers went back into bug-on-the-Celtics-windshield mode.

With Bynum gone, Kendrick Perkins went back to pounding on Pau Gasol, who went into flamingo-in-a-cement-mixer mode with Lamar Odom in deer-in-headlights mode.

“I just felt like a beast,” said Davis. “I’ll be honest with you, I felt like I couldn’t be denied.”

The Celtics led, 85-77, when Boston Coach Doc Rivers put the regulars back in, by which time Wallace and Robinson had also drawn technical fouls for their unmatchable histrionics.

The AP reports:

Derek Fisher rallied his teammates with a motivational speech on the bench during the break before the fourth quarter.

Then he went out and showed them how it’s done.

“Derek, he’s our vocal leader. He’s the guy that pulls everybody together and is always giving positive reinforcement,” Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said after Fisher made five baskets in the final period to lead Los Angeles to a 91-84 victory Tuesday night over the Boston Celtics and a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals…

Bryant scored 29 points and Fisher had 16, including 11 in the fourth quarter after Boston cut a 17-point first-half lead to one point…

Bryant had 25 points after three quarters, but he did not score for the first 10 minutes of the fourth. That’s when Fisher took over, hitting four out of five Lakers baskets to help them reclaim the home-court advantage they lost when the Celtics won Game 2 in L.A…

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum had 10 rebounds apiece for Los Angeles.

Kevin Garnett, who had just six points in Boston’s victory Sunday, had 25 in Game 3. But Allen, who had 32 points in Game 2, missed all 13 field goal attempts—one shy of the NBA finals futility record—many of them while Fisher was guarding him…

The Lakers opened a 37-20 first-half lead, but Boston cut the deficit to four late in the third quarter and then made it 68-67 early in the fourth on consecutive drives by Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Rajon Rondo. With a chance to take the lead, Allen was called for an offensive foul away from the ball…

Allen missed all eight 3-pointers, all five 2-pointers and got to the line just twice.

The AP reports:

Somewhere during the second quarter in Game 2 of the NBA finals, Ray Allen slipped into that shooting zone only visited by real-life superstars and movie characters.

With his fundamentally flawless jumper snapping crisply from his wrists, the Boston guard hit 3-pointers in dizzying bunches against the helpless Los Angeles Lakers. He made seven in the first half and finished with a finals-record eight 3’s in the Celtics’ 103-94 victory Sunday night.

Allen’s wry smile after he hit three straight 3-pointers in a two-minute span evoked memories of Michael Jordan shrugging his shoulders during his 35-point half against Portland in the 1992 finals. Even Jesus Shuttlesworth— you know, the sharpshooting kid Allen played in “He Got Game”—would have been proud.

The AP reports:

While Allen scored 27 of his 32 points in the first half with a record-setting 3-point shooting display, Rondo completed his fifth playoff triple-double down the stretch. Taking charge after Allen cooled down, the point guard racked up 19 points—including the quick-reflex basket that put Boston ahead for good—along with 12 rebounds and 10 assists…

Kobe Bryant scored 21 points while battling more foul trouble for the Lakers, who couldn’t catch up to Boston’s dynamic guards in Los Angeles’ first home playoff loss since last season’s Western Conference finals. Pau Gasol had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers, and Andrew Bynum added 21 points and six rebounds.

The AP reports:

Andrew Bynum also had five fouls in between tying his career playoff high with 21 points and swatting seven blocked shots. Artest fouled out with 47 seconds remaining in the game.

Pau Gasol led the Lakers with 25 points, eight rebounds and six of their finals-record 14 blocked shots.

The AP reports:

Rondo made the go-ahead basket with 3:21 remaining, reacting quickly to a loose ball after Kendrick Perkins’ shot was blocked and putting it in to make it 91-90. He blocked Derek Fisher’s shot shortly after, then knocked down a huge jumper that extended the lead to 95-90 with 1:50 to play.

Allen powered the Celtics with seven 3-pointers and 27 points in the first half, but it appeared that would be wasted when he cooled off in the second half. Boston was getting nothing from its other big stars, as Pierce shot only 2 of 11 for 10 points and Garnett battled foul trouble and scored only six.

The AP reports:

Rondo hadn’t been as sharp recently as he was in the second-round stunner, battling a sore lower back after some hard falls in the Orlando series. But he played 42 minutes Sunday and appeared in good shape.

Suddenly, so do the Celtics.

“Anything I can do to help the team win is big,” Rondo said. “I take pride in my game and how I play the game.”

The Orange County Register reports:

The Lakers’ defense was so stout that it set an NBA Finals record with 14 blocks yet could not hold Boston off quite to the end. The Celtics shot 11 of 21 (52.4 percent) from the field to break a 72-72 tie entering the fourth quarter. The catalyst was Rajon Rondo, usually guarded by Kobe Bryant, and Rondo finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, two steals and one block.

The Lakers’ resolve was shaken when Bryant committed a charging foul for his fifth foul of the game with 11:15 still to play. Bryant’s foul trouble limited him to 34 minutes – five fewer than the sore-kneed Bynum, who again had to pick up slack left from Lamar Odom’s foul trouble – and the Lakers’ rhythm was profoundly affected by tilting too far toward Bryant when he was available…

Ron Artest  was 1 for 6 on 3-point shots and 1 for 10 overall from the field, offsetting his fine defense on Boston’s Paul Pierce. But Artest wasn’t as big a bust as Odom, who had said Saturday that “the most important thing” was for him to avoid foul trouble again.

Instead, the game knocked Odom on his heels right after he entered it. His first-half absence contributed to a 14-point deficit – double the Lakers’ largest deficit in a home game this postseason.

The Orange County Register reports:

The Lakers got strafed at the 3-point line but could have overcome it. They were outscored by 10 in the paint (and Rondo had much to do with it) even though they got early fouls on Garnett, Kendrick Perkins  and Glen Davis . None fouled out, and the Lakers wasted a precious 39-minute game from Andrew Bynum. He will have only one day of rest before Games 4 and 5.

The ball got to Bryant and stuck there far too much, and the Celtics rarely let him roam to the opposite side. He missed 12 of 20, with five turnovers and only three free throw tries.