Kobe silences C's with game-winning jumper

By Couper Moorhead, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday January 31, 2010 8:05PM

BOSTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- Ray Allen could not have played better defense. Kobe Bryant had tried to drive once and been stifled, tried twice and been suffocated. He tried to pass off and free himself for a three. Allen smothered.

Then Bryant drove left and stopped at the free-throw line. The jumper was coming and Allen was right there for the jump. But then Bryant, at the height of his leap, kicked his legs out for a final moment of airtime, just enough to get the ball off with 7.3 seconds remaining. The shot fell, giving the Los Angeles Lakers a 90-89 lead over the Boston Celtics that would survive a final attempt from Allen.

"[Bryant] had a couple looks before that and we were mystified he couldn't put it in," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "He was going to drop it in."

"[It was] as difficult a shot as you can make," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

It was a game of runs, each team exchanging periods of excellent basketball, and the Lakers happened to make the final one.

The Celtics, having won both the second and third quarters, held an 11-point lead with nine minutes remaining, a lead they took by pushing the ball and making risky plays on offense. But then Boston slowed the pace, milking the clock on every possession. In essence, they shifted weight onto their heels to keep the ball away from Los Angeles and hoped the final buzzer would sound until they fell flat to the floor.

"We went into the stall mode offensively, walked the ball up the floor, took forever to run stuff. That's just not who we are," Rivers said.

The Lakers were all too willing to give them a little nudge. Though the Celtics are the team most often referenced for their defense, the Lakers held them to 16 points in the final period and Bryant -- not looking 100 percent physically in shooting 8-of-20 -- did what Boston didn't.

"Situations where you got a team on the ropes, you got to knock them out," Kevin Garnett said.

The Lakers stormed out to an early 13-point lead behind the strength of Andrew Bynum's (19 points, 11 rebounds) catch-it-high, keep-it-high, shoot-it-high offense. Considering Boston's recent struggles, things already in the danger zone. But when Bynum went to the bench and the Celtics brought in Tony Allen, the scales tilted.

With one of his best games since the 2006-07 season, Allen was an offensive dynamo, scoring 12 first-half points with both drives and jumpers, the latter being a well-recognized weakness in his game. And with Allen bailing the Celtics out of some broken sets, Rajon Rondo regrouped and attacked, dishing eight of his 12 assists in the second quarter.

"Tony was fantastic," Rivers said. "The first half, him and Rondo singlehandedly got us back in the game, with their energy."

Energy has been a problem for the Celtics the past few weeks, as has been allowing offensive rebounds and simply holding large leads in the second half. Though it appeared they had shaken those ghosts through three quarters, the specter of January loomed as they allowed a crippling put-back dunk from Shannon Brown in the fourth and coughed up the lead.

The Celtics still haven't beaten the Lakers since they clinched a title in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals and have now lost six of their past eight games, including consecutive losses to the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks and the Lakers. Not that it bothers Rasheed Wallace.

"Regular season, yeah, you got a few big games where anybody can hit some shots then, but when it's for the hardware, some cats don't want to take those shots," Wallace said. "I don't think it's a psychological advantage if you dominate or beat a team in the regular season."

For what it's worth, nobody would have said the Celtics were ever being dominated during their championship season.

Nobody could say the Lakers have been playing their best basketball over the last few weeks, either, but the results for them have been very different. The win puts a cherry on top of an eight-game road trip -- culminating tomorrow in Memphis -- in which L.A. has taken five of seven.

"Even if we lost that game, there were still things we could have done better," Ron Artest said. "We won by one point, it's not like we won by twenty. We were humbled a little bit."

• Lakers: Morrison
• Celtics: Daniels, Giddens

• Lakers: Gasol
• Celtics: Wallace

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: TD Garden, Boston, MA
• Officials: #15 Bennett Salvatore, #34 Marc Davis, #63 Derek Richardson
• Attendance: 18624
• Duration: 2:29