Celtics’ teamwork trumps Lakers’ Kobe show
Boston closing in on title with a Game 5 basketball clinic
Mike Segar / REUTERSPaul Pierce and the Celtics were sharp and together in beating the Lakers on Sunday.
OPINION
By Steve Wilstein
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 2:44 a.m. ET June 14, 2010
 | Steve Wilstein |
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BOSTON - In Hollywood, a star can carry a film. In the Boston Garden, nothing beats teamwork.
One scintillating play after another — head-spinning passes, steals from a trapping defense, a clockwork offense — turned a game and a series into an instant classic.
In Boston Celtics lore.
In the storied rivalry of the Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.
In NBA finals history.
It was a clinic in how basketball should be played. And how it shouldn’t.
The Celtics took the best the Lakers could offer Sunday night — Kobe Bryant’s 23 straight points on seemingly impossible shots from the second quarter to late in the third on the way to a 38-point game — and left the Garden for the last time this season with a 92-86 victory and a 3-2 lead in the finals.
They go at it again in Game 6 in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, both teams beaten up, several players limping, the ferocity escalating. It will be a change of scenery but the Lakers will need a shift in strategy to keep the Celtics from claiming their 18th NBA title and celebrating in front of all those courtside celebrities in Tinseltown.
As spectacular as Bryant can be, he can’t beat the Celtics by himself.
These Celtics honored the tradition of the ones who came before them and whose retired numbers and green-and-white championship banners hang from the rafters of the Garden — part boast, part taunt to all visitors who enter.
Four Celtics, led by Paul Pierce’s 27 points, scored in double figures. Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo had 18 each, Ray Allen 12. They whipped the ball among each other for 21 assists. Bryant’s biggest help came from Pau Gasol, with 12 points, and the Lakers managed only 12 assists. The name of the game for the Lakers, especially in the second half, was give it to Bryant and clear out.
Here’s a short list of the Celtics’ highlight film, going backward from the end, that had the 18,624 fans in the Garden rocking:
- 35 seconds left in the game: Rondo, streaking to the hoop, flips in a reverse layup on a long pass from Pierce as he leaps to save an inbound pass from going out.
“I was just showing off my Randy Moss and my Tom Brady in one play, that’s all,” Pierce said.
- 3:54 left: Rondo, all 6-1 of him, sneaks inside to tap in an offensive rebound after Pierce misses a 3-pointer as the 24-second clock runs out.
- 5:19 left: Rondo lays in a ball after a full-court pass from Allen.
- 3:08 to go in the third quarter: Allen steals the ball, passes to Rondo, who passes back to Allen for a short bank shot that gives the Celtics their largest lead, 71-58.
And so it went, crisp passes, swift, efficient movement, the Celtics playing the way all the great Celtics teams always did. And the Lakers? They just kept going to Bryant and his brilliant shooting almost bailed them out. Almost.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers raved about Pierce’s attacking offense, his pick and rolls, his big shots. And especially that pass to Rondo in the final seconds that gave Boston a seven-point lead.
“Paul has said for years that he could play for the Patriots, and maybe we might have to believe him,” Rivers said with a smile.
Rivers loved, too, the way his men played unselfishly.
“At the start of the third quarter, Ray had a shot and passed it back to Paul for a shot,” Rivers said. “That’s letting the ball find the open guy. That’s who we are when we’re good. … It’s the way we should play.”
The Celtics couldn’t help but be impressed, though not cowed, by Bryant’s shooting.
“From the standpoint that he’s providing points for his team and he’s in a rhythm, it’s a bit dangerous,” Garnett said. “But for the rhythm of his team, then it works in our favor. … He was very keen on what he wanted to do. He got the shots that he wanted … I thought for the most part we pretty much controlled everybody else.”
This performance, forged under pressure like a diamond and coming in the pivotal fifth game of the finals, ranks among the legendary games in Celtics-Lakers playoff history. They’ve met 11 times in the finals, Boston winning the first eight, Los Angeles the next two, the Celtics the last duel two years ago in what was dubbed “The Closeout Blowout,” a 131-92 rout at the Garden.
Yet as strong as the Celtics looked in this game, and as one-dimensional as the Lakers appeared, a closeout by Boston in Los Angeles is no slam-dunk. Championships are inevitable only when they’re clinched.
How confident is Bryant that his team can win the next two?
“I’m not very confident at all,” he said with a laugh.
There’s a sign in the Celtics’ locker room that reads: “Individuals win games but teams win titles.”
On this night, the Celtics won a huge game and moved within a victory of their 18th title.
Steve Wilstein writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in Boston.
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