COMEBACK KIDS
C’s climb out of 24-point hole, take 3-1 series lead
Celtics 97, Lakers 91
NBA. The Celtics have waited 22 years for a 17th world championship. Now, they’re just a game away.
They erased a 24-point lead and beat the Lakers, 97-91, last night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals at the Staples Center. The Celtics take their 3-1 series lead into Game 5 on Sunday night back here in Los Angeles.
Paul Pierce scored a game-high 20 points, and James Posey scored 18, including four 3-pointers.
Just when it looked like it was over, once the Lakers quelled another Celtics run to push the margin to 70-50 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter, the C’s stormed back. P.J. Brown capped off a 21-3 run with a baseline dunk to get the Celtics within 73-71 heading into the fourth quarter.
The C’s tied it at 73-73 on a Leon Powe one-hander in the lane, and they had their defense to thank. The Lakers had missed 10 straight shots over a span of 7:01 between the third and fourth quarters.
Eddie House hit a jumper to give the Celtics their first lead at 84-83, and an 11-2 run put the C’s ahead, 88-83. Ray Allen’s (19 points, nine rebounds) lay-up gave the C’s a 91-86 lead and iced the game with 15.7 seconds to play.
If the Celtics had any thoughts of correcting their Game 3 flaws, they certainly didn’t show it early on. The Lakers built a 35-14 advantage, the largest lead after the first quarter in Finals history, because the Celtics were jump-shot happy on offense, slow on defense and pathetic on the boards.
The C’s missed 13 of their first 16 shots, as the Lakers built a 26-7 lead. Plus, the Lakers had nine assists on their first 10 field goals while the Celtics didn’t have any at that point. What’s more, Lamar Odom, who hasn’t been relevant since gas prices were in the two-dollar range, had 13 points, four rebounds and two assists in the game’s first nine minutes.
After the Lakers extended the lead to 24 midway through the second quarter, and a Jordan Farmar 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Lakers a 58-40 lead at the half.