Kobe's Jumper Sends Lakers Past Celtics

If we're being completely honest, Kobe Bryant didn't have it on Sunday. Favoring his ankle from the very beginning, Bryant shied away from shots he normally takes, and from initiating the offense on most possessions. But as is almost always the case when the clock is winding down and the ball is in his hands, he finds a way to win.

That's exactly how it went down against the Celtics, as Bryant's jumper over Ray Allen with 7.3 seconds left capped an 11-point fourth quarter comeback to give the Lakers a hard-fought 90-89 road victory.

At the outset, Boston was more interested in establishing a physical presence than they were in playing basketball. And since the officials weren't letting Boston's usual bullying go on without plenty of whistles, it resulted in Paul Pierce heading to the bench a little more than three minutes in with two quick fouls. Kevin Garnett tried to get physical with Andrew Bynum, and taunted Ron Artest from the ground after Artest sent him there with an offensive foul. Later in the period, Rasheed Wallace checked in, and got tangled up with Pau Gasol, which netted both players technical fouls on the exchange.

All of this nonsense took the Celtics completely out of their rhythm, and allowed the Lakers to go up by as many as 13 points. Fortunately for Boston fans, the home team decided to play ball in the second, and went on a 15-0 run in the middle of the period to end the half with a five-point advantage. Tony Allen was a key spark off the bench while Pierce sat with foul trouble, and Rajon Rondo was dominant, picking apart the Lakers' defense at will for nine points and nine assists in the period.

Allen finished the game with 14 points, while Rondo ended up with 21 and 12 assists.

The teams went back and forth in the third, with the Lakers tying the game at 58 with 7:35 to play. But thanks to the Celtics' trademark defense, L.A. managed just eight points the rest of the period, and Boston was able to extend its lead back to seven as the teams entered the fourth.

This is where, somehow, the game got away from the Celtics.

Paul Pierce didn't score in the final period, and neither did Rajon Rondo. Kevin Garnett hit only a single jumpshot, while Ray Allen managed only two free throws. After the Lakers had allowed Rondo to repeatedly penetrate into the lane for either easy baskets himself, or passes out to wide open teammates for uncontested shots, all that stopped in the fourth. The Lakers backed off of him, and dared him to shoot -- something which, despite his overall improved offensive game, is something that Rondo is clearly still not comfortable with, especially in crunch time.

As the Lakers altered what the Celtics were doing offensively to the point where Boston scored just 16 in the fourth quarter, L.A. wasn't exactly setting the nets on fire themselves. Trailing by 11 with just under nine minutes to play, there was no quick, flashy run that put L.A. back on top -- and in fact, they didn't retake the lead until Bryant hit the jumper on the game's second-to-last possession.



Kobe was 8-for-20 on the afternoon, and really didn't look comfortable out there at any point the entire game. Yet we all knew that shot was going in, didn't we? Ray Allen played the best defense possible in that situation, but Bryant found a way.

Tough, tough loss for the Celtics, who really should have been able to hold on after taking control in the second.

On the Lakers side, I've never seen a good team take as many forced or ill-advised shots, so credit Boston's defense for that. Andrew Bynum was stellar, finishing with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and two blocks. More importantly, Bynum received the crunch time minutes that are usually reserved for Pau Gasol. While Gasol's numbers were fine (11 and 11 on 4-of-9 shooting), he seemed to be in the wrong places a lot defensively in this one, and Bynum's performance had a much bigger impact on the game's final outcome.