MVP Kobe shows his mettle in final moments of game

By Jeff Freedman

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/10/09 — In defeating the Boston Celtics by a score of 87-81, the Los Angeles Lakers found a way to keep their Championship dreams alive as Game 3 of the NBA Championship Series shifted coasts to Los Angeles.

One thing that seemed to be a sure thing was that Kobe Bryant would score much more than he had on the parquet floor in Boston. This time he pumped in 19 in the first half and then 7 more in the third quarter. He would finish the night with 36 points. And were it not for a poor night from the free throw stripe, he would easily have had even more. By contrast, however, both Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom made their first baskets of the game in that quarter, having been held scoreless from the field in the first half.

And despite having the home court advantage, Boston had a free throw advantage in the 3rd quarter as well as the lead at 62-60. It seemed to be anybody’s game. Nervous Hollywood luminaries such as Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Sylvester Stallone and Eddie Murphy sitting courtside all had their scripts written one way.

Sasha Vujacic, who had picked up his team’s scoring slack all game and Ray Allen traded 3 point shots to being the quarter. Three minutes into the quarter Paul Pierce picked up his fifth personal foul. By then the former Inglewood, CA star, who had hated the Celtics as a kid growing up in the shadow of the Lakers then home, the Fabulous Forum, had only scored 2 points on an uncharacteristic 1-10 shooting night. How much he was missed therefore, can be debated. And as the game went on, his night was not going to get better.

With 6:52 left, Kobe hit a wide open 3 pointer, giving the Lakers the lead at 69-68 and the Laker star 30 points for the game. Derek Fisher came back and hit a pair of free throws and Pierce threw it away, leading to another Kobe trip to the line, where he extended the Laker lead to five.

Rajon Rondo converted a Ray Allen miss cutting into the Laker lead, but Gasol came back and tipped in an Odom miss, twice. The Lakers led by seven. It was a lead that they would not give up, not with their entire season on the line.

The Celtics got as close as four with a little more than three minutes remaining, and then held the Lakers to a wild shot by Gasol that went out of bounds. Nowhere in the sequence did Kobe touch the ball. By contrast, the Celtics got the ball into the hands of their big man, Kevin Garnett, who banked one in. The teams traded misses, and then Kobe passed off the double team to Vujacic, who again hit a three for his 20th point off the bench and then Fisher drove through the lane and converted both from the charity stripe.

Garnett stuffed one in, but Kobe scored on a pull up jumper. Eddie House came back and converted a three pointer from the corner off a pass from Pierce. But Kobe came back and scored again, losing Ray Allen in one-on-one coverage. For all intents and purposes, the game was over.

The Lakers had done what they had to do, win the game at home and get themselves back in the series. No NBA team, of course, had come back from a 3-0 deficit. Now the Lakers have hope. Hope that they can win the next two games Thursday and Sunday at home and then take at least one of the last two in Boston. It’s a long journey, but the first step has been taken. There will be no Finals sweep this year, and along with the fans in Los Angeles, the NBA brass is smiling tonight.