Paul Pierce and C's Shock Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers 93 @ Boston Celtics 97
21-8 Los Angeles Lakers tied against 15-14 Boston Celtics 1-1
Boston – A domianating fourth quarter from the Boston Celtics and the Lakers' last minute collapse set up Paul Pierce who relived his late game heroics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Pierce's trey which hit its target with 2.2 seconds left put the Celtics up by 3 before Pierce converted the four point play after being fouled by Kobe Bryant.
It seemed as if Kobe built up the lead for LA, then he lost the game for them. Kobe Bryant's 23 first half points helped the Lakers to a 75-56 afvantage with one quarter to play and the lead was still perfectly intact with just 6 minutes left in the game. After that point, LA couldn't find a way to score as the Celtics slowly chipped their way into the away team's lead.
With less than 2 minutes left, the Lakers found themselves in hot water as Ricky Davis made a series of jumpshots. Shane Heal was forced into an 8 second violation with 56.7 left in the game. Raef Lafrentz knocked down a three to put the Celtics behind by three. Veteran PG Heal was then called for a backcourt violation, bringing the feisty Australian into a war of words with the ref.
"That was not a backcourt violation," Heal exclaimed in his Australian accent, "Look, I've played for so many years and I know what I'm doing. These guys (Game Officials) over here in the States don't even call travelling, why call a backcourt violation when it isn't?!" The floor general fumed ove rthe call and was ejected from the game with 37.2 seconds left and the Lakers leading 93-90.
Celtics' rookie Felix Chang then went on to nail a three pointer from in front of the hoop to tie the match with 30.3 ticks left and the Lakers knew they were in hot water.
Kobe Bryant and the starting five were put back oncourt as Bryant who had already warmed down and found the situation unanticipated made an error that was just too unfamiliar. He dribbled out of bounds and called that it was an unfair call because Pierce was seen pushing him.
"The refs aren't calling anything in our favour, Paul Pierce was holding me," He argued.
Pierce knocked down the off balance trey to give Boston their only lead of the game and that lead was what won them the game. "It was good to drain it again. The memory of my shot from two weeks ago in Orlando is sitll fresh in our minds," Pierce said, "I promise to bring the trophy back to Boston!" The Fleet Centre crowd was raucous as they celebrated the win, chanting 'P-Dub, MVP' and 'Go home Kobe' throughout the night.
Kobe Bryant topscored with 33 points on 14 for 23 shooting in just 38 minutes. He received a good effort fro mthe rest of his team as everyone shared the scoring load.
Paul Pierce finished on 27, 5 and 5 as he led 5 players in double figures. "Tonight it was our night," Ricky Davis said, "We showed these guys that as a team, we can play basketball."
Magic Johnson though may be the one to blame for the loss as he refused to reinsert his starters even though Boston was closing in on them. He argued that his bench players needed the game time to improve. "I regret keeping them in the game but at the time it was the better choice to keep the second and third string guys in," the headstrong coach stated. Nine of the Lakers players played at least 20 minutes each.
Game 3 is back in Los Angeles.
Boxscore:
BOS: 20 - 24 - 12 - 41 - 97
LAL: 22 - 28 - 25 - 18 - 93