He thought that it was over when he heard his knee his knee popped. The crowd was silent as the team captain was carried off the court. As he went down the tunnel in the wheelchair, if the injury was bad, the series might have been over. Not only that, they lose their starting center Kendrick Perkins moments later.
But the Celtics thought different of that. After Doc Rivers' speech on adversity after losing both, the Celtics went on a 6-0 run before amzing happened. Paul Pierce came out of the tunnel jogging with a strained meniscus. He looked like Willis Reed going out there. The crowd saw him and exploded as soon as he came out. Then when he went to the scorers' table the fans were going crazy as soon as his name was called by the P.A. The fans' excitement forced Lakers' coach Phil Jackson to take a time out.
That didn't help later as Pierce hit back-to-back 3 pointers firing up the crowd like never before. Pierce had 15 points in that memorable 3rd quarter and finished with 22 points after scoring only 3 points in the 1st half. With Garnett's stat line coming up next, because of the impact he brought to the game, I'm giving the player of the game to Paul Pierce.
As for the rest of the Big 3, Kevin Garnett had 24 points and 13 rebounds and had 2 huge dunk, including a poster on Pau Gasol, coming to stores near you. Ray Allen had no trouble with his shooting touch. He had 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Look at Rajon Rondo, 15 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Plus, after getting hit by Derek Fisher in the 4th quarter, he put on his headband right-side up instead of upside down. Nice try on the dunk before. Perkins has to step up his game offensively next time. Even though he had just 1 point, his defense on Pau Gasol looked pretty good.
The Celtic bench contributed with defense. P.J. Brown had a big block on Lamar Odom, pinned it to the glass. James Posey had 2 steals. Sam Cassell hit his first 3 shots and finished with 8 points and drew a huge offensive foul from Kobe Bryant. Even Leon Powe had 4 points and 4 rebounds.
The Lakers ended up on the short side, after many were anticipating them stealing Game 1 on the road. The 3 keys with the Celtics' defense were outrebounding the Lakers 46-33, shutting down Vladimir Radmanovic for 5 points and Kobe taking more shots than he scored. 24 points on 26 shots. Radmanovic also had 5 fouls. Pau Gasol had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Lamar Odom had 14 points and 6 rebounds along with 5 fouls. Derek Fisher played in his 5th Finals appearance with Kobe. He had a solid night with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.
No one on the Lakers' bench really stepped up big. Sasha Vujacic had 8 points while Ronny Turiaf had 5 points. Jordan Farmar got shut down by Rondo for only 2 points while Luke Walton didn't score at all against his dad's former team in almost 14 minutes of play. I'm surprised that if Radmanovic or Walton couldn't score, Jackson didn't go to Trevor Ariza.
Defense wins championships, and it's more fun to watch Celtics defense than Spurs defense. It's just flat out better to watch the Celtics. Watching the Celtics play the Lakers has officially brought me into the rivalry. I was born in 1988, one year after the last meeting of both teams in the Finals with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Growing up I heard of and watched highlights of their games even back to Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
Now, being part of it, going through the experience, I can feel why it's a legendary rivalry. This year 31 of 62, half of the NBA Championships will be won by either the Celtics or Lakers. Right now, I'm looking for banner #17.
