The Lakers were a lot more aggressive to start the game. They held their biggest lead of the game at 15-8 with just under 6 to play. The Lakers started out more aggressively going after rebounds and out rebounded the Celtics 10-8 in the quarter. Perk picked up his 2nd foul with 3:28 left and pretty much spent the whole game in foul trouble. The Lakers finished the first quarter up 22-20.
The Celtics started the 2nd quarter with Ray Allen, James Posey, Leon Powe, Sam Cassell and PJ Brown and this lineup came out aggressively and started the quarter with a 10-0 run. They took the lead at 24-22 and never trailed after that. The Celtics continued to pour it on and they out scored the Lakers 34-20 to take a 54-42 lead into the half. The Celtics held the Lakers to 42% shooting in the quarter. The biggest difference came at the line where the Celtics shot 19 free throws to just 2 for the Lakers. Kobe was held to 4-10 shooting for 9 points. KG didn't shoot much better, going just 3-11 for 8 points.
The Celtics picked up where they left off, starting the 3rd quarter with a jumper from Ray and built the lead to 65-49 with 7:05 left in the period. The Lakers then pushed back and cut the lead to 9 with 4:29 left in the quarter. The Celtics came charging back and built the lead to 22 with 31 seconds left and went into the 4th quarter leading 83-61. The Celtics reclaimed the rebounding edge by out rebounding the Lakers 13-7 in the quarter.
It seemed that the Celtics were off to a huge blowout win, but they got complacent and went away from the things that got them the lead and the Lakers came charging back. The Celtics got sloppy, let up on defense, and stopped being aggressive offensively, once again settling for jumpers. The Lakers went on a 31-9 run to cut the lead to just 2 at 104-102 with just 38.4 left in the game. Pierce was fouled on a drive and hit both free throws to put the Celtics up 106-102. Pierce then blocked Vujacic's 3 and Posey was fouled on the rebound with 12.6 left. He also hit both free throws to give the Celtics a 6 point edge. Fisher missed a 3 and the Celtics escaped with a 108-102 victory.
Going into the game, the big question was whether Pierce and Perk could play and how effective they would be. Both started and neither showed any ill effects from their injuries. Pierce finished with 28 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 41 minutes. Perk played only 13 minutes, but that was due to foul trouble and not the injury. He finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
The story of the game was the play of Leon Powe. He first entered the game with 1:02 left in the first quarter and immediately made his presence felt as he drew a charge on the defensive end and then drew a foul at the other end. He played just 14 minutes and finished with 21 points and 2 rebounds. He was a force inside that the Lakers has no answer for and was 6-7 from the field and 9-13 from the line. ABC had a nice feature on Leon's life story at the half.
KG struggled with his shot once again in this game shooting 7-19 from the field, but again, he came up big in the 4th quarter when the team needed some big shots and finished with 17 points. He also came up big on the boards with 14 rebounds to go with 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Ray Allen did a good job defensively on Kobe again and finished with 17 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Rondo once again out played the Lakers more experienced point guard and finished with 4 points, 6 rebounds, 16 assists, 2 steals and a big block on Vladimir Radmanovic. He also had only 2 turnovers in 42 minutes of play. Sam Cassell once again came off the bench as the back up point guard but played only 6 minutes with 1 steal and 1 assist and left the game with a sprained right wrist and didn't return.
The Celtics bench got it done in this game, out playing the Lakers bench for the second game in a row. James Posey had 8 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal and came up with that big rebound and clutch free throws to seal the win. PJ Brown also played very well filling in for Perk when he went out with foul trouble. He finished with 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal and some solid defense. The Celtics bench finished with 35 points and 8 rebounds to 23 points and 4 rebounds for the Lakers.
The Celtics shot 53% while holding the Lakers to 49% and they finished with a 1 rebound edge over the Lakers but they turned the ball over 15 times to 13 for the Lakers. The biggest disparity was at the line where the Celtics shot 38 free throws to just 10 for the Lakers. There were some bad calls on both sides, and the Celtics may have gotten a few home court calls, but the majority of the disparity came because the Celtics were much more aggressive and the Lakers played more tentatively and so the Celtics got the calls. But, with Phil Jackson spending much of his post game interview complaining about the free throws, expect the Lakers to get all the calls in game 3.
After many of the experts called for anything from a Lakers sweep to Lakers in 5 and didn't give the Celtics much chance to win, the Celtics are up 2-0 going to LA for games 3 and 4 and if necessary, 5. The Lakers have to feel that they have some momentum after cutting a 24 point lead to 2 and almost stealing this game and thinking of the Celtics early struggles on the road. But, the Celtics won 2 on the road in Detroit, proving that they can win on the road. If the Celtics play their game as they did in the second and third quarters, they can win at least one game in LA. It will come down to focus and defense. It is the Celtics series to win or lose now and if they continue to keep their focus and play the defense they are capable of, they will win it.
[Box Score]
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