Celtics-Lakers, Game Four: Boston Perseveres In Comeback For The Ages

It was a comeback for the ages, spearheaded by Paul Pierce’s heroism and facilitated by putrid play from the Lakers frontcourt. Boston’s Game Four 97-91 victory, when they came from 24 down, was truly all about heart.

The First Half

Forget Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett—Lamar Odom looked like a future Hall of Famer after a scintillating first half.

With Odom playing like a dud over the first three games in the series, Phil Jackson made it his primary objective in Game Four to get Odom more involved.

Instead of having Odom isolate against Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett, Jackson had Kobe Bryant set screens for Odom at the top of the key. Unprepared for such an unusual small/big screen, Kevin Garnett was picked off and unable to contest an aggressive Odom layup.

A few minutes later, with Bryant doubled teamed at the wing, Odom made a smart cut, and threw a beautiful pass to Pau Gasol cutting along the baseline for a dunk.

With Odom fully integrated into the offense, he turned in an invigorated first half. Odom ran the floor on the break, drived and dished to the corners, hit step back jumpers, and attacked the rim head on. Odom came up huge, with hitting 7-7 FG, three assists, eight rebounds, and 15 points for the half.

Kobe Bryant couldn’t find his lost jumper, but he forced double teams by posting Ray Allen or rubbing him off screens. While Kobe didn’t have a single field goal in the first half, he forced the Celtics to double-team him, and found open shooters to the tune of six assists.

Pau Gasol passed, cut, and rebounded smartly.

Vladimir Radmanovic hit a pair of threes and a nifty sweeping layup.

Derek Fisher wasn’t asked to do much, but took advantage of poor closeouts by Derek Fisher.

Trevor Ariza played with exceptional energy, and came up with a block, a steal, five rebounds, six points, and countless deflections.

Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, and Jordan Farmar each hit a three.

Ronnie Turiaf played hard.

The Lakers jumped passing lanes and ran in transition exceptionally well, never allowing Boston’s defense to set. The Lakers were a self-substantiating machine, fueling defense into offense, back into defense, and then restarting the process all over again.

It also isn’t a coincidence that when Lamar Odom played at his highest capacity, the Lakers played at theirs.

The Lakers technically defended Rajon Rondo with Kobe Bryant—but in reality, the Lakers let Kobe play center field and disrupt Boston’s post-ups and passing lanes. Since Rondo was too timid to look for his shot, the Celtics were essentially playing four-on five, and Bryant was free to roam around and pick up four huge steals.

Kendrick Perkins was also doubled, and he was too cumbersome to defend the Lakers' quick-hitting triangle offense with any success.

Kevin Garnett was on the way to yet another choke-filled playoff game.

Paul Pierce picked up in the same funk he left Game Three with.

P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell were too old and too slow.

With Rondo and Perkins on the floor, Boston’s floor spacing was awful, and Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were constantly forced to score in one-on-two and one-on-three situations.

The Celtics offense only picked up the slightest hints of offensive harmony when Eddie House and James Posey replaced Rondo and Perkins. Aside from Ray Allen, who never lost his cool, Posey and House were able to find enough success with their jumpers to force the Lakers to stay attached to the perimeter and away from double- and triple-teaming Garnett and Pierce.

The Second Half

At halftime, Pierce gathered his courage and allowed himself the challenge of defending Kobe in the second half. While Allen certainly did all he could, Pierce’s strength kept Kobe from getting deep-post position and drawing automatic double teams.

Pierce was long, strong, and tough enough to fight through screens preventing Kobe from getting separation and drawing help defenders. And when Kobe tried to post against Pierce midway through the third quarter, Pierce sent one of Kobe’s unblockable fadeaways straight back into his face!

On the other side of the ball, Pierce destroyed the pathetic defensive attempts of Radmanovic, Ariza, and Odom for a number of powerful layups over late-arriving help defenders. Only when Phil Jackson switched Kobe’s superior defense onto Pierce did PP’s parade to the basket cease.

With the two superstars matched up mano-a-mano with each other, fans were treated to a spectacular duel of arguably the game’s two most complete wing players. And when the dust settled, Kobe went 6-14 in the second half for 14 hard earned points, with four assists and zero steals, while Pierce went 4-6 for his 14 points (only five against Kobe), five assists, and a steal.

Since Boston had other players step up while the Lakers struggled to force-feed Kobe, Pierce’s defense, clutch scoring, and his attitude of stepping up to meet difficult challenges were better than Kobe’s.

While Kobe never got into a rhythm the entire game, Pierce carried his team on his back on both ends the entire second half. It was a spectacular and courageous performance on the game’s grandest stage.

With the Celtics doing a better job of maintaining contact with Bryant around screens, the Celtics weren’t forced to compromise their defense to provide help. Therefore, the quick hitters out of the triangle that were wide open in the first half were jammed to submission in the second half.

With the offense bogged down in one-on-one play, few Lakers stepped up.

Lamar Odom put on his hat and his cape, and made himself disappear.

Pau Gasol was swallowed up by Kevin Garnett.

Derek Fisher forced an surprising number of bad passes.

Vladimir Radmanovic was worse than useless—he was an outright liability.

Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar shot blanks and played horrible defense. In fact, with the Lakers desperately needing a stop late in the ball game, Ray Allen eschewed a Kevin Garnett screen, drove on Vujacic at the top of the key, and left him at the free throw line after a simple right handed drive culminating in a layup.

Meanwhile, a number of Celtics stepped up with big-time performances.

Ray Allen stayed, cool, composed, and clutch throughout. While his jump shooting was only ordinary (2-6 from three-point range), he made a number of critical layups down the stretch, including a spectacular back-breaking baseline up-and-under at the 3:16 mark.

Plus, with the Celtics forced into a small lineup, Allen went above and beyond by hauling in nine gigantic rebounds. It’s a wonder Allen’s veins and arteries didn’t freeze with the ice water running through them.

Kevin Garnett probably had the best second half of his playoff life. Noticeably more aggressive, Garnett was much more intent with attacking Gasol in the post or with strong drives to the basket. The highlight of this aggression was a strong hop-step jumper into Gasol with two minutes to go that put Boston up five.

Except for one violation, the refs let Garnett set moving screens, which he executed authoritatively. Garnett was alsdo huge on the boards (13 rebounds), and his defense in the second half was exemplary.

Eddie House and James Posey were bullseye from downtown, hammering Boston’s deficit down three points at a time, and combined for 6-12 from beyond the arc.

Doc Rivers also deserves credit for keeping the faith, for yanking Rondo for more firepower, and for going small to better prepare Boston to take advantage of the Lakers’ speed and quickness.

The Celtics had all the answers in Game Four. The only question left regards their killer instinct. That answer will come on Sunday.