Celtics Central

In a highly anticipated game of historic arch rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics 90-89 on a Kobe Bryant fade away at the foul line with 7.3 seconds left.

Ray Allen did a strong job of defending Kobe, but Bryant made the clutch shot anyway.

It was the first time the Lakers led in the second half. Unfortunately, it was the only time that really counts. Los Angeles hadn’t led since a Kendrick Perkins dunk tied it up at 40 all with 5:33 left in the second quarter.

So what does this game mean?

Let me put it to you this way…what if Kobe missed and the Celtics won instead? How much different would you be feeling right now?

For me, not much.

Just before Kobe’s big shot, Paul Pierce was called for an offensive foul when he slightly warded off Ron Artest and Artest went for the Academy Award with his reaction, falling away and down. Pierce doesn’t quite get into Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant territory with refs ignoring that contact at that time of the game.

(Remember the Kobe foul on Pierce, that was called a steal, that caused a game impacting turnover with time running out in a previous meeting that was never called? Also recall Rasheed Wallace getting T’d up for saying “And one” after making a basket not so long ago? Kobe did the very same thing in this game with no ref response at all.)

It was Ron Artest. The foul was called. Turnover. Laker ball.

One might question why the Celtics didn’t double Kobe to get the ball out of his hands. Ray was doing a credible job on Kobe the previous few times down the court and Kobe missed his shot each time. But this was with the game on the line. He is their clutch shooter. Maybe it was because they knew they would have a chance to answer.

With 7.3 seconds left, the Celtics had a world of time to tie or take the lead.

The Final Play
As the final play developed, it wasn’t a bad play. They went for the win with a three point shot.

Pierce took the in bounds pass and headed over to right top of the arc. Ray Allen came up and screened off Paul’s defender for a moment and continued on across the court to behind the left top three point line.

Pierce continued to move toward the hoop with two defenders on him, so he threw across the top to Ray, who was open for a second, but had Lamar Odom closing in on him as he shot.

Like another recent game where Ray was shooting poorly, but hit the game winner, Ray put it up. Up to that moment, Ray Allen was 2 for 9 in this game. Let the record show, he finished 2 for 10, 0-6 from the arc, and just 7 points. It was a shot that Ray Allen has made many times before. It bounced off as time ran out. Ball game over. Lakers win.

So, again, what do you take from this game?

It was a closely contested game between two teams that were evenly matched for this game. I didn’t see a clear cut winner either way.

Both teams played hard. Some players played well. Others didn’t. I know one thing. The Lakers didn’t look unbeatable.

Boston was home and needed this game more than the Lakers did. But Boston hasn’t been playing well for a while. They played pretty well against the NBA Champions, all things considered.

If you think ‘I/we’ should be in panic mode after this game, I disagree.

I expected the Lakers to win this game. I didn’t expect the Celtics to control the game as well as they did for as long as they did.

The Celtics fought back from 13 down early to take 10 and 11 points leads. The Lakers fought back to win at the end.

Both teams shot fairly well with pretty serious defense in their face. They were both over .500 shooting in the first half and the Lakers finished at .479 to the Celtics .466.

Laker Big Men
Of concern for the Celtics was the efficiency of the Lakers’ big men in the paint. The Lakers scored 50 points in the paint to the Celtics 42.

Andrew Bynum had a big first quarter with 12 points and finished with 19 and 11 rebounds. Pau Gasol was held in check with just 11 points in 40 minutes but had 11 rebounds and played solid defense on KG who took just 9 shots, making 5 for 10 points.

Kendrick Perkins was blocked 3 three times and Bynum had an impressive dunk over KG and behind Perkins after Perkins went out to cover Kobe and didn’t quite get back in time.

Perkins finished with 10 rebounds, 8 points and no blocks in 30 plus minutes.

The Celtics overcame one of their ongoing weaknesses by out rebounding the Lakers 39 to 36, and on the offensive boards with 10 to 8. But they continued to be careless with the ball with 18 turnovers. The Lakers were only somewhat better with 15 TOs.

Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with 21 points and 12 assists (10 in the first half). Paul Pierce supported with 15 points and three big three pointers in the first half even after sitting for a long spell with two early fouls.

That allowed Tony Allen to get major playing time (25 plus minutes) and Tony played extremely well. He defended Bryant as well as anyone could possibly expect and scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting

How the game went
Rajon Rondo had a spectacular game to get the Celtics ahead and keep them there for most of the game.

The Celtics started out down by as many as 13 points in the first quarter as the Lakers led after one 30-19.

Gasol rebounded a missed Paul Pierce three pointer and Rondo knocked down his pass and recovered it, taking it in for the score to get within 40-38. Shortly after, Rajon drives and dishes to Perkins for the dunk, game tied at 40.

Over all, the Celtics went on a 23 point swing from 30-17 until they went up 52-42 before the Lakers scored the last two baskets of the first half.

During that time Tony Allen came in for Pierce and played well. He even had a fantastic block of Kobe at the rim.  It resulted in a fast break for the Celtics with Rondo getting it to Glen Davis. Davis was blocked by Artest, but Davis scrambled to the ground for the ball and called time out.

On the inbound, Rondo passed to Paul Pierce for three. Celtics were up for the first time, 43-40. From there, Pierce kept getting open on the weak side three point line and hit two more threes.

Rondo was ‘driving and kicking’ in the first half. Rajon was more of a shooter in the second half as Kobe was laying off him.

Rasheed Wallace didn’t score his first points of the game until 6:35 were left and he hit a big three pointer to extend the Celtic lead to 84-78.

Ron Artest didn’t score well. But he was involved in two of the biggest plays of the game.

He went just 4 for 12, but he had a huge basket driving around KG and hitting a runner over Perkins to get within one point at 88-89. Then he drew the offensive foul on Pierce. That set up the game winning situation.

Do the Celtics have something to worry about? Yes they do.

The Celtics are now 6–11 since beating Orlando on Christmas Day. They have a number of things to worry about.

But this game they actually played pretty well, considering what we have been witnessing of late.

 The bench players still have to give them more, especially Glen Davis.
 After a fast start on his return, Glen has struggled rebounding and offensively.
 Ray Allen has been the healthiest, but has been inconsistent offensively.
 Kevin Garnett is still not back completely and one wonders just how ‘back’ he will get.
 There is something missing from this team at this point.

It must be noted what a bright spot Tony Allen has been in a difficult time. Who would have thought I’d be writing that sentence a few months ago?

With questions about the stars’ age and health, and the inconsistent over all play of the team, one wonders if Danny will make a play for a strong addition to the team before the February 18 deadline.

Next up: Washington Wizards in DC on Monday night.