Tom E. Curran • E-mail

BOSTON - Either the Lakers grow a backbone between now and Tuesday or this NBA Finals is over. It’s that simple.

Sunday night, the Lakers allowed Leon Powe to look like James Worthy 2.0, as the Celtics second-year scrub score 21 points in less than 15 minutes. “Embarrassed” wasn’t a word the Lakers used. “Humiliated” wasn’t a word the Lakers used. No, the Lakers instead whined that the Celtics in general and Powe in particular got to the line too much.

“I’m more struck at the fact that Leon Powe gets more foul shots than our whole team does in 14 minutes of play,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t play from a deficit like that that we had in that half, 19 to 2 (in foul-shot attempts) in the first half in situations like that. I’ve never seen a game like that in all these years I’ve coached in The Finals. Unbelievable.”

Equally unbelievable is that Powe was also able to go 6 for 7 from point-blank range in addition to going 9 of 13 from the line. He was allowed to feel perfectly at home in the paint by L.A. As were the rest of the Celtics.

The Lakers are now down 2-0 after the 108-102 loss and aren’t going home to seize control of the series on their own. They’re hoping the refs take heed of Jackson’s well-rehearsed talking points.

“You can’t do anything because if you do anything they’re going to go to the line,” said Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic. “We gotta be more physical and play smarter or better. We went to the line 10 times. In L.A. it will be a different story.”

The lowest moment for the Lakers Sunday night was when Powe was allowed to go nearly the length of the court and dunk. Uncontested. Unmolested. Looked like the And1 Tour.

“That play was a situation where (Vladimir Radmanovic) did a trap in the backcourt and opened it up, and (Pau) Gasol was afraid to leave (Kevin) Garnett for an easy basket,” explained Jackson. “But it was a poor play, an awful play. I kept telling the team, we played as poorly as we could possibly play for two and a half quarters in the middle of the third quarter. We just can't play any worse than this. That was an example of even a situation where we were even more at ease — at dis ease — I guess, in our defensive end. But from that point on, I thought that we rallied in the game.”

Poor Kurt Rambis. Now a Lakers assistant, he had to watch his team scatter rose petals through the lane for Leon Powe on that play when the opportunity BEGGED for someone in purple to do unto Powe what was done unto Rambis 24 years ago by Kevin McHale. A hard, dirty, lowdown, nasty foul that changed the tenor of the 1984 Finals in Boston’s favor. But no clothesline was forthcoming Sunday night. Not even a tomahawk across the arms that would have avoided a suspension but gotten the point across. Nothing.

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If Mr. Hockey Don Cherry was an NBA analyst, he’d be all over the soft European angle in this one. The problem with that is that, Gasol, the normally irritating Sasha Vujacic, Radmanovic, and burly Ronny Turiaf aren’t usually so tender. They’re just playing that way in these Finals. As are the rest of the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant got called for a technical in the second quarter for complaining about a non-call. This, he said, was taking “a stand”.

“Guys were getting hit going to the basket and not always being called. We’ve got to make a stand, but at the same time, you’ve still got to play. You can’t lose your aggressiveness. You still got to go through it and you just do your best.”

But they did lose their aggressiveness. The Lakers allowed the Celtics to do whatever they pleased. Even Jackson acknowledged that part of the reason for the foul disparity was that Boston played harder.

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