BOSTON — Here was Kobe Bryant, well, being Kobe Bryant. In the third quarter, the Lakers offense was Kobe Bryant up top, Kobe Bryant inside, Kobe Bryant here, there, pick a spot. There was just a dizzying array of jumpers and shots chiropractors advise against. Bryant rang up the first 19 points for the Lakers in the quarter, 23 straight overall, 38 for the game.
“I would say they were the toughest shots that I ever seen somebody hit while I was on the court,” Paul Pierce said. “He was shooting fadeaway 3s, fadeaway jumpers off the double team.”
But the Celtics didn’t just stare in awe. They struck back.
“I just tried to keep telling them, it’s only two points each time he scores. It’s not 10,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “It’s just like if someone else was scoring.”
But the problem for the Lakers was that not one else was scoring, and the Celtics were getting contributions from everywhere. Rivers had warned the Celtics would need to win when Bryant put up “a big number” and also reminded that number is “not the final number.”
So that final number, the only one that mattered, read Celtics 92-86, as Boston assumed a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals. The Celtics look to close out the series tomorrow night in Los Angeles for their 18th championship. For the first time in the 2010 playoffs, the Lakers trail in a series.
And it’s because last night, everything Bryant managed to do, the Celtics managed to do more.
There were a couple of stunning plays by Rajon Rondo (18 points), including a tap-in with four minutes left that put Boston up 12. After Los Angeles cut the Celtics lead to 87-82, Rondo converted a near-impossible layup with 35.2 seconds left off a tough, long inbounds that went from Kevin Garnett (18 points, 10 rebounds) to Paul Pierce (27 points) to Rondo for a seven-point lead. The Celtics were hogtied to get the ball over midcourt so Garnett flung. Pierce retrieved and fired to Rondo for the twisting layup.
“I was just showing off my Randy Moss and my Tom Brady in one play,” Pierce said jokingly.
“They thought it was difficult, but I thought I had an easy look at the rim,” Rondo said with a shrug.
The Celtics did so much more, lots more.
* Like Garnett doing everything, including negating Pau Gasol (12 points, 12 rebounds).
* Like shooting .563 and holding L.A. to .408.
* Like Pierce keeping Boston’s offense flowing against Bryant’s third-quarter brilliance.
“As far as Kobe going at it, I wasn’t in no personal duel with him,” Pierce said. “I really didn’t even take the notice we were going back and forth.”
And Bryant, who was on an island, had some advice for his mates when it was suggested some hold memories of losing in 2008.
“Just man up and play,” he said. “What the hell is the big deal? I don’t see it as a big deal. If I have to say something to them, we don’t deserve to be champions.
“We’re down 3-2,” he said. “Go home win one game, go into the next one. Simple as that.”
So Rivers’ call that the Celtics had to overcome a big Bryant number came true. But in the fourth quarter a prediction from Lakers coach Phil Jackson flopped.
“This team [Boston] has lost more games in the fourth quarter than any team in the NBA,” Jackson said in his team huddle in a chat caught by the TV microphones. “They’re showing us that now.”
Well, Boston showed grit, determination and a lot more.
“I don’t care what Phil Jackson says,” Garnett said.
“He’s right,” Pierce said. “That’s been the truth for us,” Pierce said.
But not last night. Not when the team overshadowed the individual.
