Celtics 87, Lakers 86

Game Highlights

Photo of the Game

Kendrick Perkins shows off his passion after slamming one home on an and-one play.
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty

By Marc D'Amico
Celtics.com

Key Moment

With the Celtics ahead 87-86 and less than 10 seconds left in the game, Paul Pierce isolated himself at the top of the key against Lamar Odom, who had switched onto him just seconds earlier. Pierce made a series of moves on the perimeter, and when he saw daylight he blew by Odom to the basket in hopes of putting the C's ahead by three.

Instead, he was met by considerable contact in the paint and missed his shot in a crowd of green and gold, and no whistle was blown. The rebound was pulled in by Lamar Odom with 4.9 seconds remaining on the clock, and the Lakers were in a race against the clock.

After grabbing the rebound, Odom turned, streaked down the court and put up a driving layup, seemingly at the buzzer, that just missed dropping through the hoop. But the interesting part of the layup attempt wasn't that it missed; it was that players began to slow down on the court as Odom approached the basket.

The reason for players slowing down was that about 50 feet behind that layup attempt, Pau Gasol stood in the backcourt hollering for a timeout, and it was granted to him. After video review during the timeout, it was deemed that the timeout was called with 2.2 seconds remaining, and the Lakers would have the ball side-out in the front court.

In the Celtics' favor was the fact that they had a foul to give, meaning once the ball was inbounded, they could commit a foul after letting time tick off the clock and the Lakers would have to run their play all over again from out of bounds. Ray Allen and his teammates knew that, but it was the foul they didn't commit that saved the game.

Derek Fisher took the inbounds pass for the Lakers on the wing, made a move to his left and, while expecting Allen to foul him, fired up a desperation shot from 20 feet. Allen, however, knew first off that the shot was extremely difficult, and secondly that Fisher was already in the act of shooting. As a result, the heady veteran didn't use that foul to give, played great defense, and watched Fisher's shot go array at the buzzer.

Had Allen committed the foul at any point after Fisher caught the ball, the Lakers' point guard could have easily been awarded two free throw attempts with a chance to win the game. Instead, Allen's high basketball IQ took over, and that wound up helping the C's hold on for an impressive win on the road.

Key Box Score Line

With all of the trade rumors behind him, Ray Allen got back to his usual self tonight. The sweet shooting guard was nearly unstoppable for a stretch of the third quarter, at one point scoring 10 points in only 3:39 of playing time. He finished the night shooting 10-of-15 from the field for a game-high 24 points. Just hours after the trade deadline passed, he did quite a job of proving that Danny Ainge is one smart man for keeping him.

Box Score Nuggets

• Los Angeles grabbed 50 rebounds in the game, led by Lamar Odom's 14 off the bench.
• After averaging 42 PPG in the past two contests, Boston's bench scored only 12 tonight.
• The three Boston reserves to score, Rasheed Wallace, Tony Allen and Glen Davis, each recorded four points.
• Rajon Rondo recorded a game-high 11 assists go to with his 14 points.
• Boston took only 13 free throws, compared to Los Angeles' 25.
• Pau Gasol led the Lakers with 22 points.
• Kendrick Perkins and Lamar Odom both led their team in rebounding, and they finished with the exact same statistics: 13 points and 14 rebounds.
• Marquis Daniels didn't attempt a shot in 13 minutes of playing time.
• Not a single Laker recorded more than four assists.
• The teams combined for only 21 turnovers, 11 for Boston, 10 for L.A.
• The Lakers shot only 40.2 percent in the game.
• Lamar Odom alone outscored Boston's entire bench.
• All of Boston's starters finished with a positive plus/minus rating.
• The Lakers scored 21 or less points in each of the final three quarters.
• Rajon Rondo recorded five steals in the game.

Quote of the Night

Phil Jackson on the final play of the game: "Well, they had a foul to give. Fish broke off his cut. He was supposed to open the floor up and we were supposed to have an option there. It didn't work."