Would YOU want to play with Kobe?

Last night, Kobe Bryant put on one of the most mesmerizing shooting exhibitions I’ve ever seen. Double-teamed; fadeaways; on the dribble; from downtown; hands in his eye sockets; none of it mattered to Kobe. He was in a zone the likes of which only Michael Jordan and a couple other guys in NBA history could ever enter.

But there’s another side to the story: As good as Kobe was, as amazing as what we witnessed last night happened to be, some people will make the argument that he Lakers would have been better off if Kobe hadn’t gone buck wild. I don’t know if I agree with that, but there is definitely one thing I took from Kobe’s barrage (other than the fact that he is a ridiculous, ridiculous basketball player):

I would hate — no, despise — playing basketball with Kobe Bryant.

When he gets into “Kobe vs. the World mode” (which admittedly isn’t every night), Kobe berates teammates who don’t get him the ball, takes shot after impossible shot, and then berates his teammates a little more if they make even the smallest screw-up.  Not only are his teammates unlikely to touch the ball, but if they ever make a play they’d better convert a basket — if not, they’re getting an earful from Kobe.

One Kobe moment from last night stood out more than any other — more even than any absurd shot he sent miraculously through the basket. During the middle of Kobe’s hot streak, Luke Walton had just gotten into the game and made a nice drive from the wing into the middle of the lane. When the defense collapsed, Walton kicked it out to a wide open — and I mean wide open — Derek Fisher for three. Fisher’s three rimmed out and a timeout was soon called. Kobe could be seen screaming at Walton, saying (I’m guessing), “Give me the damn ball. I’m hot. Pass me the rock and get the hell out of my way. Don’t try to make a play, don’t pass to anyone else… or else.”

The going gets tough for the Lakers and the furious Bryant glare comes out. He swings his arm at officials even after plays during which he wasn’t fouled. He demands to defend whoever’s scoring for the other team. He throws his arms in the air after teammates’ turnovers. He looks off open teammates and keeps the ball to himself. Would you want to play with him? Would you want to be a designated defender and Kobe’s personal bitch, while he plays 1-on-5?

Not me. As great as Kobe is, as mind-boggling as his talents can be, I would never want to play on his team. Not in a million years. Give me a lesser player but one who will pass me the ball when I’m open. Give me someone with half Kobe’s talents but who will run the offense. Give me a guy 6’1″ and pretty slow but who won’t humiliate me on national television.

Kobe Bryant is an amazing basketball player, quite possibly the best in the world. Last night was a testament to his other-worldly talents as a player.

But as a teammate, it was also a glaring display of his shortcomings.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Not even Kobe can win one on five.

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “‘I would say it was the toughest shots that I’ve ever seen somebody hit while I was on the court,’ said Paul Pierce. ‘It was like everything was — he was shooting fadeaway threes, fadeaway jumpers off the double‑team. You knew he was going to come out and be aggressive and try to carry his team. He’s a heck of a player. You’ve got to expect that from him.’ ‘When a player is in that kind of mode, man, you just put a hand up and you trap him and you do different things,’ said Kevin Garnett. ‘Other than that, you’re at their mercy.’ But as the points piled up, and Bryant’s legend grew, an interesting thing happened. The symbolism screamed louder than the 20,000 fans packed into the Garden. The juxtaposition was absolutely perfect. Over and over. Possession after possession. One vs. Five. Me vs. We. Kobe vs. the Celtics. And the Celtics were winning. Team was winning.”

Henry Abbott, ESPN TrueHoop – “A single win from an NBA championship, Rivers is prepared to joke about what a poor job his team — which has both Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace a single technical foul from an automatic one-game suspension — has done keeping level-headed. ‘That tells you how screwed up we are,’ says Rivers with a wry smile. ‘Kevin Garnett is calming our team down. It’s funny now, but it was Kevin and Tony Allen in the huddle telling everyone to calm down. I jokingly told [assistant coach] Armond [Hill] this is a crazy basketball team right here.’ Rivers finally concludes: ‘I don’t know if calming down and us goes together.’”

Bill Plaschke, LA Times – “So this is what the wall looks like. Sickly green, bulging with elbows, dripping with sweat, a solid sheet of basketball will. So this is how the Lakers look with backs flattened against it. Kobe Bryant screaming, Ron Artest bricking, Pau Gasol disappearing, Andrew Bynum limping, Lamar Odom smiling? ‘We’ll respond,’ he said. You will? How? If the Lakers’ answer is anything like it was on this steamroller of a Sunday night at TD Garden, they will soon end their season with a loud and pronounced cry of uncle.”

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe – “Doc Rivers knew there was a Kobe Bryant bomb planted somewhere in this series. ‘I hope so,’ he said after watching the maestro score 23 consecutive Lakers points in this one, beginning with the last 4 of the second quarter and the first 19 of the second half. ‘It’s amazing what that does to your team. We’re up 12, and I’ve got to call a timeout to settle down our guys.’ It was a great show, all right. But it’s just a footnote in Lakers history. Despite those 23 straight, and despite his series-high 38, the Celtics were once again a far better T-E-A-M, and with last night’s 92-86 victory they will head back to Los Angeles one game from another NBA championship. More and more the story of this series is the breadth and depth of the Celtics, who have not relied on any one, two, or even five players to grab this 3-2 series lead.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “”From the standpoint that he’s providing points for his team and he’s in a rhythm, it’s a bit dangerous,” Garnett said. “But for the rhythm of his team, then it works in our favor. I can’t even come up with any kind of words because his flow is just deliberate. He was very keen on what he wanted to do; he got the shots that he wanted. I thought the second half he was really keen and hitting 3s. He was in a nice rhythm. ‘I thought for the most part we pretty much controlled everybody else, but in that scenario you put your hand up and play the best [defense] that you can. Strategically, all our defensive schemes and stuff that we have, you just hope that he misses.’ He hardly did, connecting on seven of nine shots overall in the frame for half of his game-high 38 points. But it didn’t matter. The supporting cast was 3-of-10 for seven points with only two other players generating buckets. Meanwhile, Boston combined for 12-of-19 shooting for 28 points with five contributors. ‘They played with more tenacity than we did in that stretch,’ Bryant said. ‘And we have to do a much better job Game 6.’ It’s clear Los Angeles can’t win if it’s five against one. It’s simply not a fair battle. Even if it’s the best shooter in the world.”

Arash Markazi, ESPN Los Angeles – “‘I thought we played pretty well,’ said Artest, who had 7 points, on 2-of-9 shooting, and two rebounds. ‘The games that we lost here, they were close. It wasn’t like a couple years ago where the game was a blowout. We played good. We played tough on the road. We played some competitive games.’ While reporters surrounded his locker, Artest sat in silence and perused the post-game stat sheet. He dragged his finger across Kobe Bryant’s 38-point line and looked at the other numbers on the page before putting it down and looking up. ‘No matter what it says on this stat sheet we did it together,’ Artest said. ‘We did all this together.’”

J.A. Adande, ESPN – “With the NBA Finals hanging in the balance, the Celtics put the basic premise they carried into this series — that if they made Kobe work for his shots, he couldn’t beat them by himself — to the ultimate test, and they prevailed. For those who were waiting to see Bryant break loose, to have the kind of outburst you expect from him (similar to what you expect when menacing dark clouds with sheet-lightning flashes are gathering overhead), you got your answer. He scored 19 points in the third quarter and even had the Celtics players asking their coaches to switch their strategy against him. And after the downpour ceased and the skies cleared, the Celtics had actually increased their halftime lead from six to eight. While Kobe had a galactic quarter, the rest of the Lakers were the exact opposite of our closest star: They came east and sank toward the horizon. So now Phil Jackson is in a quandary. Does he attempt to ask Bryant to carry the Lakers again, when that hasn’t proved to be effective against the Celtics? Or does he ask more from the rest of the team, when they haven’t played consistently? We know now, definitively, the Lakers will need a collective effort. One player might take a game off the Celtics, as Dwyane Wade did in the fourth game of the first round or LeBron James did in the third outing of the conference semis. But the Lakers are behind 3-2 in the series and need to win twice.”

Marc Spears, Yahoo! Sports – “Even the Celtics felt Pierce’s fury. With time running down in the second quarter, Rajon Rondo looked toward Ray Allen on the left wing instead of giving the ball to Pierce for the final shot of the half. Pierce angrily turned the other way and appeared to start walking off the floor as Rondo threw up a wild shot at the buzzer. Rondo darted toward Pierce afterward and the two exchanged words. Pierce later apologized to Rondo in the locker room. ‘It was nothing,’ Pierce said. ‘I told Rajon at halftime I had a couple buckets going and I wanted the ball and he wanted to do something different, and I was a little upset at that. Hey, he’s our point guard and I trust him. He’s made so many great plays for us throughout the year and throughout the playoffs. It was nothing. We’ve got spats with our team all the time. We always have spats. But the good thing about it is we always clean it up.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “In the past two Celtics’ victories, each being a must-win, Pierce converted 19 of 33 shots for 46 points after scoring 49 in the first three games. Now, he has put himself in position to do something very few players have the opportunity to accomplish; win an NBA title in his hometown. He has two chances to cement himself as the boogeyman, a bugaboo in Los Angeles each time he steps off the plane at LAX. It will require another special performance, another somewhat selfish night in which he demands the ball and gets visibly furious at his teammates when he doesn’t get the ball in his sweet spot. Sometimes it’s like that. Sometimes Pierce needs to be a jerk when he is hot. He can’t always be a team player and distribute the ball, not when the elbow jumper is falling, not when he takes his burly body and dives into the chests of defenders to create space and drains those 17-footers.”

Chris Sheridan, ESPN – “The Celtics’ collective energy was head and shoulders above the Lakers’ throughout the evening (except for Bryant’s third quarter), and from a tactical standpoint, a precision standpoint, an execution standpoint, Boston was just flat-out better. But the C’s were sloppy at times and knock-kneed toward the end, allowing Los Angeles to stay within reach on a night when the Lakers’ turnover total (14) surpassed their number of assists (12). ‘I thought we had a spirited locker room at the end of our [postgame] session there,’ said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, whose 47-0 record when his team wins Game 1 of a best-of-seven series is in jeopardy. ‘They had a couple things fall into place, and we felt pretty good about our comeback and the way we played at the end of the game. We’re upbeat about going into [Game 6].’ If there is a stretch the Lakers can point to as the one in which this game was lost, it would be the third quarter, when the Celtics scored on 11 of their first 12 possessions to neutralize what Bryant was doing in hitting shots from all angles with varying degrees of difficulty. For more than a week, Rivers had been hammering home the point that a Kobe moment was going to happen and that the Celtics were going to have to withstand it. That they did, but it was an uncomfortable final four minutes until the Garnett-to-Pierce-to-Rondo play gave them some breathing room.”

T.J. Simers, LA Times – “Over the years it doesn’t always mean the Lakers are going to win when Our Ball Hog loses sight of everyone else, but you’ve got to admit it’s the best in basketball entertainment. In addition to scoring, he’s also going to give dirty looks to any teammate who doesn’t get him the ball, which is good for a chuckle if you’re watching. And tell me you didn’t grin or laugh when TV caught him coaching, pointing to himself and insisting he be the one to cover Paul Pierce. Later, I heard he wanted to fly the plane home, too. Our Ball Hog took 27 shots, maybe some of them were forced, but that’s become a part of his game. He scored 38 points, the reason folks watch the NBA to see the game’s best score. I know Phil Jackson likes to emphasize teamwork and all that other nonsense that makes a coach think he has an impact on the game, but I expect we won’t know how he really feels about Our Ball Hog until his next book. For now, he said, ‘he’s the kind of guy you ride a hot hand, that’s for sure.’ And ‘we were waiting for him to do that. ‘But then as he often does, he offered contradictory remarks. He said, ‘You know, other than that, you look at the assists, we had 12; they had 21. That’s a big differential in a game like this.’ And that’s because the ball was in Our Ball Hog’s hands and he wasn’t giving it up.”

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports – “The big deal is unmistakable: The Lakers need to get tougher, stronger and smarter to beat Boston. Yes, they’ve regressed, Bryant confessed. Milk-carton defense, he called it. For that to happen this deep into the Finals, against this team, it was downright disconcerting to the best player on the planet. He was walking toward the bus Sunday night, on his way out of the Garden and back to L.A. for Game 6, trying to come back on a championship series, on a Celtics franchise that has been the bane of these Lakers for 50 years. All that screaming in the locker room, all that angst over a Game 5 that felt like ’08 again, and Bryant stopped walking and stood for a moment. He had to start building back these Lakers, building back the fragility of a defending champion on the brink of elimination. His eyes narrowed now, his lips stiffened, and Kobe Bryant would say late in this chase for a back-to-back championship, ‘Listen, if you told me at the beginning of the year that we’ve got two games at home to win a championship, yeah, I’ll take that [bleep].’ Two games in Staples Center and two final chances for Bryant’s wrath to deliver these Los Angeles Lakers an epic NBA title. All the cursing, all the screaming, was finally done as Bryant walked calmly, quietly to the purring bus. His words still hung inside the Garden, though. Still loomed over these Lakers. Someone has to make a stand with Kobe Bryant. Someone has to fight to save a championship season.”

Dave McMenamin, ESPN Los Angeles – “Two lapses Sunday sum it all up for L.A. The first came against Rajon Rondo in the final minute. With 38.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and after they had cut a 13-point deficit down to just five, the Lakers employed a full-court press. But the didn’t include anyone back as the deep man, protecting against a homerun pass. Paul Pierce leaked out towards half court, Kevin Garnett lobbed the ball to him, Rajon Rondo streaked ahead and Pierce whipped it out to Rondo for a fastbreak layup to extend the lead to seven points. In the second lapse, the Lakers later were able to cut the lead to five again, but this time allowed Rondo (a 61 percent free throw shooter in the playoffs) to work 10.2 seconds off the clock without being fouled, and to get the ball to Ray Allen (who shoots 86 percent from the charity stripe), who ended up taking the foul with 18.4 seconds left and hitting two free throws to put Boston back up by seven. ‘It was a critical time for us to get stops and run as a team and for guys to get into it,’ Lamar Odom, who had two of the Lakers’ nine steals, said. ‘We just couldn’t get none. Tonight was a game where if we’re getting stops, we would be talking about how Kobe got into it and how everybody else kind of followed after that, but we couldn’t get stops. It’s always the defensive end. This is the NBA Finals. You talk about the Super Bowl, the World [Series], in baseball it’s pitching and defense, defense, defense. It’s always the defensive end. We have enough guys that can score and play. It’s always the defense.’”

John Hollinger, ESPN – “Unfortunately for Bryant, his flurry came in a losing effort, thanks in equal parts to the no-show from his teammates and the equally torrid shooting of Pierce. The MVP of the 2008 Finals scored 27 points of his own and topped it with a spectacular falling-out-of-bounds assist to Rajon Rondo for a game-clinching layup with 35 seconds left. Pierce made two layups, but those were his only makes in the paint; like Bryant, the majority of his output came from distance, especially middle distance. Pierce’s other 10 baskets came from outside the paint, and he drew his only free throws on a runner contested by Bryant in the fourth quarter. ‘Paul was terrific,’ Rivers said. ‘He attacked all night. He did it through the offense, he did it through isos, he did it in pick-and-rolls.’ For the night, Pierce was 10-of-17 from outside the paint, including 8-of-13 on long 2s. That’s an unusually high conversion rate for anybody, even a shooter as good as Pierce.”

Mark Heisler, LA Times – “Those icy fingers up and down your spine… Or around your throat. No, it’s not witchcraft, just the Celtics, as usual. With Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom getting ever fainter until they looked like ghosts, and Ron Artest getting ever dizzier until he looked like a purple tornado, the Lakers capped a long bad week with Sunday’s 92-86 loss in Game 5, one of the great face-plants in a history replete with comic opera moments. Before the Celtics invited them back into the game, the Lakers gave it away with a third quarter in which everything they had accomplished this postseason went up in flames. While Kobe Bryant went off as only he and a few others in the game’s history could, scoring 19 of his 38 points in the third quarter, the Lakers let the Celtics score on 12 of the first 13 possessions. Four of the Celtics’ baskets came after missing shots. In other words, the Celtics made it or, when they missed, got it back and put it up again until it went in. Forget getting a rebound, the Lakers may not have touched one for the first eight minutes of the third quarter.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “‘This team has lost more games in the fourth quarter than any other team,’ Jackson told his charges during a fourth-quarter timeout. ‘They know how to lose.’ Pierce shrugged. ‘Well, he’s right,’ Pierce said of one of his team’s greatest regular-season flaws. ‘That’s been the truth for us throughout the regular season. I haven’t really seen too much of that in the playoffs, but coaches say things to try to motivate their team. I probably would say the same thing if I was a coach in the same situation. It doesn’t bother me at all.’ That’s especially true when said coach is proven wrong.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Last night, to get his team to resist the urge to fight off the one-man army that was Bryant, Rivers reminded his team that the key words were ‘one man.’ ‘What we talked about before the game, you could see they wanted to change the defense, they wanted to start trapping, and I just tried to keep telling them, it’s only 2 points each time he scores,’ Rivers said. ‘It’s not 10. It’s just like if someone else was scoring. As long as we were going to keep scoring the way we were scoring, we were going to be good. But it makes you question your defense because he was terrific.’ Pierce was the Celtics’ answer for Bryant, particularly in the third quarter, when he scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The difference, though, was Pierce had reinforcements. The Celtics shot 56.3 percent from the floor. Bryant went 13 for 27 but while he went on his tear, his teammates seemed to go missing (a combined 18 of 51). Pierce did not see it as a game of one-on-one. ‘As far as Kobe going at it, I wasn’t in no personal duel with him,’ Pierce said. ‘I really didn’t even take the notice that we were going, I guess, back and forth at the time. I’m out there trying to help my ball club to win. Kobe is doing what he does for his ball club. He has to score the ball night in and night out. He makes tough shots, and he’s a proven winner. I wasn’t in the one-on-one deal with Kobe at all.’”

Gary Dzen, Boston Globe – “‘We had a timeout,’ said Celtics coach Rivers. ‘We had one timeout. I didn’t want to use it because we could advance the ball with the time out. So we were going to count to four, and if Kevin didn’t have anybody open, I was going to call it. Before I could get there, I see the ball in the air.’ Garnett threw the pass to Pierce near the same sideline on which he was standing. Pierce jumped in the air like a wide-receiver running an out pattern. He caught the ball under pressure from a Lakers defender, and — unlike a wide receiver — threw another pass to a cutting Rajon Rondo for a layup that would put the Celtics up seven. ‘I was just showing off my Randy Moss and my Tom Brady in one play,’ said Pierce. ‘Going up to catch it, then I went to my Brady mode when I was falling out of bounds to find Rondo for the receiving end.’”

Kevin Ding, Orange County Register – “Maybe the Lakers rally at home to win this NBA championship, maybe not. Either way, there will come a time next spring when they’re sitting in a foreign locker room and their stomachs are churning a bit with the pressure of having to win a pivotal road playoff game. And at that moment, Kobe Bryant can rightly turn to his shaggy-headed Lakers co-star and say: ‘You owe me something, Spaniard. Now show me something.’ That’s because Pau Gasol, for all his sweet skills and how pivotal he has been to the Lakers’ greatness these past three years, has been passive, indecisive and – yes – soft when the pressure is on, the footing is unfamiliar and the faces are even more so. Gasol faltered yet again Sunday night on the road and in the clutch, pushing the Lakers to a 3-2 NBA Finals deficit.”

Monique Walker, Boston Globe – “Back-to-back losses follow the Lakers back to Los Angeles, where the Celtics can clinch tomorrow night at Staples Center. If there were any lingering emotion from the Lakers losing the NBA Finals to the Celtics in 2008, Bryant didn’t want to hear about it. ‘Just man up and play,’ Bryant said. ‘What the hell is the big deal? I don’t see it as a big deal. If I have to say something to them, then we don’t deserve to be champions. We’re down, 3-2, go home, win one game, go into the next one. Simple as that.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘Yeah, you can be provocative and get out there and act kind of like they do if you want to and get in people’s faces and do that,’ he said. ‘But that’s not the way I like to coach a team. That’s not what I consider positive coaching, and that’s (not) what I like to think is the right way to do things.’ Jackson later praised Rivers for the way he exploited matchups and got his team ready for the playoffs. But he joked that he was supposed to ‘downplay’ his adversary. He wrapped up by saying, ‘Is that enough for you? I’ll give him a gold star.’ Gamesmanship aside, one might think Rivers would be bothered by the inferences that he coaches his team to act improperly. But if he is, he’s not saying. ‘I just think he’s making a point,’ Rivers said of Jackson. ‘I don’t think he’s making it toward me. And even if he is, I could care less.’”

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “They survived the ‘Kobe game’ that they knew was coming. They fought with each other at times and the Lakers at others. They got great shots and made them, and they gave away possessions carelessly. It was frantic, emotional, sloppy, beautiful and ugly and sometimes all of the above in the same possession. Just like this series. The 2009-10 Celtics won’t be back in the Garden anymore this season, but they left the faithful with optimism and hope that somehow, someway they can pull off this remarkable postseason turnaround. It won’t be easy, and it probably won’t resemble any of the games that have come before it, but the Celtics now have two chances to win one game and an improbable championship.”

Bob Hohler, Boston Globe – “Rondo drew criticism from Rivers only for overreacting to Artest giving Garnett a little extra shove on a foul in the first half, knocking Garnett to the floor. Rondo responded by shoving Artest and drawing a technical foul. Rondo’s view: ‘In Kevin’s defense, I pushed him back.’ His coach’s opinion: ‘I don’t like that stuff. Let’s just play . . . If you want to show toughness, toughness is walking away from all the other stuff.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Kendrick Perkins disagreed. ‘I think Doc kind of got mad at him,’ Perkins said. ‘But I told Doc that was the right play that he made. A hard foul on Kevin, and he retaliated. He’s taking up for his big man. It’s many ways to have an effect on the game. That could have taken Artest out the game, just having Rondo push him from behind. You never know how that could affect him.’ Garnett said it was simply part of the game. ‘At the end of the day it’s basketball,’ Garnett said. ‘We’re not out here boxing. Everybody has played tough when it’s out here with three refs and a crowd full of people. We try to just tell everybody to control their emotions and protect one another, but you know, the way they call the game and the way they hand fines out and flagrants, all that goes out the window to be honest.’”

Kirk Minihane, WEEI – “Artest nearly fell down following the shove, which ABC color analyst Jeff Van Gundy found hard to believe, given the size difference between the two players. ‘Oh, he didn’t even shove him,’ Van Gundy said while watching the replay. ‘Oh, come on. He didn’t push him, he put his hand on him. This is another sell job. This guy [Rondo] weighs 112 pounds, and Artest weighs 280 pounds.’ Rondo was asked if he felt that Artest had ‘flopped’ on the push. ‘I’m not that strong,’ Rondo said. ‘He sold it a little bit. He’s probably the strongest guy on the court in this series. I’ve been lifting a little bit, but other than that I didn’t push him that hard.’”

Monique Walker, Boston Globe – “Meanwhile, Bynum played 32 minutes after getting his troublesome right knee drained for the second time this series. Bynum had 6 points, but just one rebound. ‘More than anything else, Andrew was out of rhythm in the game,’ said coach Phil Jackson. ‘I think he’ll feel much more comfortable getting back and playing. He’s really only played limited minutes since Tuesday night, so we anticipate that he’ll have some opportunity to get himself out there, shoot the ball a little bit, and give us more than just a big body in the sixth game.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

One goal.

Chris Broussard, ESPN – “And while Davis muscled in layups over Lamar Odom, while Wallace drained a 3 and suffocated Gasol on defense, while Tony Allen covered Kobe like a rash and Robinson hopped around like an over-caffeinated break-dancer, Garnett, Pierce and Rondo rooted them on as if wearing skirts and cheer shoes. They stood, they shouted, they pumped their fists. Heck, they looked like high school scrubs just happy to be on the squad. ‘Just think about it,’ Tony Allen said. ‘Kevin Garnett’s telling you, ‘Good job, keep going!’ That’s big for a blue-collar guy like myself. That’s why I love Kevin Garnett.’ [...] ‘It feels like we’re in somebody else’s neighborhood and we’re gonna have to fight to get out of it,’ Garnett told them passionately. ‘We gotta fight, we gotta fight, we gotta fight to get out of this neighborhood.’ ‘He meant it’s going to take all of us to do this,’ Tony Allen said. ‘That for us to reach our ultimate goal, it’s going to take all of us. This whole year, he’s been talking about team, team, team. He always says something that makes you sit back and think, ‘Ah yeah, he meant everybody.” ‘We just try to keep it team,’ Perkins said. ‘Obviously, we’ve got the future Hall of Famers and we’ve got Rondo, an All-Star who had a great year. But we keep it one goal, one team. Doc does a great job making sure everybody stays doing their roles, not caring who gets the credit. All of them preach that, especially KG. He don’t like it when they say it’s ‘The Big Three’ or ‘The Big Four.’ He likes it when it’s team. That’s all he preaches is team.’”

Steve Buckley, Boston Herald – “Does Andrew Bynum really believe the Lakers ‘choked’ Thursday night? He spoke the word so casually while speaking with reporters early yesterday at the Garden that it’s possible not everyone heard it. But, yep, there it was. When the 7-foot Lakers center was asked about his team’s 96-89 loss to the Celtics [team stats] in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, he said, “We had the lead and we kind of, so to speak, choked. We had the lead going in (to the fourth quarter), 12 minutes to go, and we gave up a run . . . and we couldn’t do anything about it.” Imagine Kendrick Perkins saying that about the Celts, or Kevin Youkilis reacting to a Sox loss by staring into the cameras and proclaiming, ‘We choked.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “Asked moments earlier the best way to get him going, Pierce joked, ‘Just get me the ball, like Keyshawn Johnson.’ He forgot the ‘damn’ for authority.”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “If the Celtics are indeed a title team, they have to maintain home court and put the pressure on the Lakers. ‘Another must-win situation on Sunday,’ center Kendrick Perkins said. ‘I think it’s getting close to that time, we’ve got to go all out. There are three games left — however you want to look at it — we’ve got to go all out.’ A team that struggled at home throughout the regular season needs to capitalize on its home-court advantage one final time. TD Garden has been a haven in the postseason and the Celtics have won every big game there, but they have played uneven in two games against the Lakers. The issue has been the offense. The Celtics have played splendid defense this series, save a couple of stretches in Game 1 and the Derek Fisher-led fourth quarter in Game 3. The series could very well be decided tomorrow and the Celtics have to bring that same desperation from the fourth quarter of Game 4 into the next game. ‘I think we’ve got to get [this] one,’ Rondo said. ‘Whoever is going to win this series is going to have to win two in a row eventually. So last home game of the year, we’ll try to go out with a win.’”

Ron Borges, Boston Herald – “Yet as a group, the Big Three have been a big zero as a united front against the Lakers thus far. That is not to say individually they haven’t had their moments but the three of them have yet to play their best at the same time. Tonight is the night for them to do it because that would not make the Celtics difficult to beat. It would make them impossible to beat. ‘It definitely would help,’ Garnett said. ‘If you look at this series I don’t think there’s been a point where all three of us have had huge games. There’s never been a situation where it’s been multiple. It’s a bit frustrating, to be honest.’ It is time for Garnett’s frustration to end and the Lakers’ to begin. It is time for the Big Three to play like they are still big and still three. Not for a quarter. Not for a half. For 48 wild-eyed minutes.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “‘You just can’t predict it, man,’ Pierce said as the captain and the rest of the C’s prepared for tonight’s Game 5 at the Garden against the Los Angeles Lakers. ‘You can’t predict how guys are going to shoot. You can’t predict how guys are going to play from a night-in, night-out basis. There’s really no way I can really answer that. I mean, it’s a different type of game. Teams have their scouting reports and some of the things they want to take away from us each and every night. Some guys more than others. So it’s hard to predict the other team’s game plan and what they want to give and what they want to take away. As far as having a great game from all of us, it’s real unpredictable.’ So unpredictable, in fact, that it has formed a pattern. At least one of the top four offensive options has disappeared in each of the first four games, including Allen (3-for-8 in Game 1), Garnett (six points in Game 2), Allen again (0-for-13 in Game 3), Pierce (5-for-12 in Game 3) and Rajon Rondo [stats] (5-for-15, three assists in Game 4). The offensive blend that emerges in Game 5 will depend largely on the Lakers’ defensive scheme. ‘Well, you just hope it comes together,’ Rivers said. ‘Both teams were really good defensively, and they’re going to take something away from you. You know, I think the willingness of our guys, and I think it’s stuck on trying to get that going and just go to the next part of it, is actually more important as far as I’m concerned. You know, it would be great if all three and Rondo and everyone got it going in one game. I’d feel very good about that game if that happens. We’re certainly going to try.’”

Mike Petraglia, WEEI – “‘We have the quickness and the size to defend this team,’ Odom said. ‘If we communicate, we’ll be alright. It wasn’t like they scored 125 points or anything like that.’ Time will tell if those words are enough to bring out more masks or spark more chants directed at his wife Khloe Kardashian. Odom can’t control that but he, like Bynum before him, said the Lakers need to control Glen Davis and Nate Robinson better. The pair, before their Shrek and Donkey routine after Game 4, combined to score 30 points off the bench. ‘Even with Glen Davis getting going and a couple of their other guys getting going, it wasn’t a barn-burner for them offensively,’ Odom said.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “The Celtics wanted to negotiate a contract extension with Rajon Rondo last fall, but the skinny point guard suddenly became Glen Davis with pockets full of lead. He wasn’t budging. He and his agent had decided that Tony Parker money (five years, $55 million) was fair and just. Period. Call us back when you agree. The Celtics had hoped for something more moderate, but they eventually capitulated, and were pleased at the time to get Rondo locked in. Now, on the precipice of a summer free agent period that will resemble the California gold rush, they are even happier. Rondo, 24, would have been a restricted free agent, meaning the Celtics could have matched any offer. But they would have had to strike a large match. Said one NBA general manager, ‘You’re looking at a max-type guy in Rondo right now.’ ‘You know,’ said ]Rondo’s agent] Duffy, ‘the agent has a responsibility, in my estimation, to keep the player in a good situation and in the right environment. I felt comfortable with that figure. I still feel comfortable with it, even in light of the circumstances. And the way that that went down will benefit him in the long term, as well. You know, he’s the Boston Celtics’ starting point guard. He’s potentially a two-time NBA champion. You can’t ask for more than that. He could have been a free agent and gone to one of the worst teams in the league, then all of a sudden two years from now, he’s like, what am I doing here? What happened? You’ve got to keep that in consideration also.’ Rondo shrugged it off, but he raised another point when he said, ‘I didn’t want to be greedy. I’m blessed. I’m in a good situation, and I wanted to keep that.’”

Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “Glen Davis isn’t getting ahead of himself after scoring 18 points in Game 4. He understands his job on the team and is more focused on fulfilling his role than living up to any expectations set by his performance. ‘It’s not my job to go out there and score points,’ he said. ‘So [when people say] he’s not going to do that again, if I have to do it again, I will. But I’m not the primary scorer on the team. I’m not the go-to guy in the clutch. I’m just a guy that goes out there, don’t have no plays called for me, just goes out there and plays the game like it’s supposed to be played, and that’s all will and determination to get the game won. So if I don’t score at all next game, I know my effort and just the will to win will be there. And that feels even greater to me, especially if we get the win.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN – “Could the free throw woes, along with the presence of bigs like Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard, be affecting his ability — and, more importantly, his desire — to go to the basket? ‘I’m always likely to go to the basket,’ a defiant Rondo said Saturday. ‘I’m going to the basket, regardless of Bynum, Dwight Howard or whoever’s down there.’ But even his coach said the free throw troubles might have subconsciously given Rondo pause, even if just temporarily. The Celtics are working on both the mental and physical aspects of his free throw shooting. ‘We’re going to work on it,’ Rivers said. ‘He knows what he’s not doing, we know what he’s not doing. Last summer [assistant coach] Armond [Hill] went down [and] I went down and watched him and [former NBA standout] Mark [Price] work on it. There’s certain things that he has to do. Clearly the first two he was — nothing that he can be taught, I can tell you that, he fell away, his elbow was out. The first one you could see it right away. So we’ll get it back. But then the confidence part has to come back as well. I will say this: I was really proud of him because I thought in [Game 3] when he missed a couple, he stopped driving, and that’s what happens when you miss free throws and then you don’t want to get fouled anymore. I thought [Thursday] night [in Game 4], he kept taking it to the basket, and for me that was huge. That’s a good sign for him.’”

Gary Dzen, Boston Globe – “”I think a lot of people for years have felt like any team Ron is on doesn’t have a chance to win because he’s going to mess it up,’ said Fisher. ‘If anything he’s done a great job of putting us in that position. We’ve found Ron to be a great teammate and a guy who has made as much or more of a sacrifice than anybody on our team this season….I think if we can win this thing that will answer the question of whether Ron Artest is misunderstood.’ Artest’s reputation as a team-killer comes mostly from comments he’s made or things he’s done off the court, but the Lakers forward hasn’t had a banner Finals on the court, either. Artest is averaging eight points on 32-percent shooting during the Finals. With Ron’s role, and the teams he’s usually been on, this is vastly different from what he’s been asked to do for his team,’ said Fisher. ‘He’s continued to have the right attitude about just finding ways to fit in. We’re trying to push him and encourage him to just be himself. And at the same time recognize that we have a system of doing things and a way of doing things that is supposed to provide those opportunities. Some of it is just, we haven’t done everything as a team where it makes it easier for everybody to just play their game, and not necessarily have a bust-out game but a game where you have five or six guys in double figures. We’ve struggled in those games where Kobe’s had to carry the load.’”

Broderick Turner, LA Times – “When told Lakers Coach Phil Jackson joked Friday that he was thinking of using an ‘electrode’ as a way to stimulate Odom’s play, Odom didn’t smile or respond. He stared ahead. He was told Jackson said Odom looked uncomfortable in Game 5. ‘No, I’m comfortable,’ Odom said.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘[Glen Davis has] matured more than anything, and he’s still maturing,’ Rivers said. ‘He still has a ways to go. But I think he’s becoming more comfortable in his own skin. He accepts who he is. The incident that happened at the beginning of the year was not the best thing for him or our team, and I wouldn’t want it to happen to any other player. But in some ways, it may have helped him understand that he had to mature now. I think he also understood that the team was not going to wait for him. We were going to move on. And when he came back, he didn’t immediately play, and I thought that all that probably in some way helped him.’ People assume maturity is somehow microwaveable, that in the nine months since the fight, Davis has grown into that man he said he wanted to become. Has he learned? Yes. Has he changed? As much as anyone could in nine months. ‘I’m sure he probably wouldn’t make that mistake again,’ Rondo said. ‘But he’s still Big Baby.’”

Monique Walker, Boston Globe – “‘As much as we want Andrew and need him, we at the same time don’t want him doing anything that’s going to jeopardize the rest of his career,’ veteran guard Derek Fisher said. ‘He’s a young and extremely talented player and has a very bright future ahead of him. So everybody wants to take one for the team and do everything that they can, but we don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt him later. Based on the information that he’s getting and doctors and everything, if he’s comfortable, then of course we’d love to have him out there, even in a limited fashion, whatever it is. He’s been limited the whole postseason. But he still found ways to be effective for us. And if he’s out there, just his size and length around the basket can help us out a great deal, particularly on the boards.’ Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said the team is keeping Bynum’s health in mind in the final week of the series. ‘It’s our understanding that the injury is something that really can’t turn into something that’s career-threatening and it’s a decision he was in the loop with and he wanted to try to play,’ Kupchak said. ‘Our doctors won’t let him do something that we don’t think is in the best interest of the organization in the long run. So it’s all right.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Mal Graham, who was a second-year guard, recalls the meeting called by player-coach Bill Russell on the eve of the ’69 Finals against the Lakers. ‘Before the series Russ told everyone, ‘OK, keep your mouths shut,’ ‘ said Graham, a Boston judge. But there was one particularly roguish character beyond even Russell’s control. ‘We get out there and it was in all of the LA papers,’ Graham said. ‘There’s Red (Auerbach) quoted saying, ‘When it comes to the playoffs, everyone is scared of us.’ ‘”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter

I think it’s safe to say this is one of my favorite plays of the entire NBA Finals, mostly because it epitomizes everything Derek Fisher is all about: He flops like a 9-year old female soccer player, comes back after the play is over to give Ray a little elbow, then complains to the ref like it was Ray who instigated the whole thing. Yup, that pretty much sums up Derek Fisher. He’s the type of dude who you love when he’s on your team, but he’s one of the most annoying, aggravating pieces of crap to play against.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Watch that drool, Big Fella.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! – “Davis had the time of his life in Game 4, grabbing another lost soul with him to deliver this 96-89 victory. He found tiny Nate Robinson and together they made it impossible for Rivers to take them out of the game’s final minutes. Rivers let them loose on the Lakers, and they turned a two-point deficit into an 11-point lead. Davis flexed and preened, playing part Barkley, part Vince McMahon. The Celtics’ championship chase is still alive, because Big Baby Davis had 18 points, five rebounds – four of them offensive – and two steals, because Glen Davis turned those October tears into June hellfire. ‘I felt like a beast,’ he declared.”

Ron Borges, Boston Herald – “Kobe Bryant was again the best player on the floor, but the Celtics were the better team. They were the grittier team, the more resilient team and the stone tougher team – and all those attributes were best exemplified by the crew that won the game. It was not the Big Three or the Little One. This time it was the masons and the truck drivers, the ditch diggers, the fruit pickers. Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace and Nate Robinson did the heavy lifting. Even the last nail that was delivered into the Lakers’ coffin came not from some sweet jump shot, but a Rajon Rondo steal and flashing drive to the basket with 22.2 seconds left. Bryant had cut the C’s lead to six by drilling three free throws. He poured home 33 points, and still come up short. Yet this was not a night for Rondo or Ray or The Truth or KG. This was a night that belonged to the bench – or, more deservingly, The Bench. Over nine frenetic fourth-quarter minutes, the four of them turned a two-point deficit into a nine-point lead – because that’s what they decided they would do. ‘We did our job,’ Robinson said. ‘We went in, played hard, played smart, played together. Then the starting five go in and bring us home. That’s the beauty about a team.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “Celtics forward Glen Davis stood barking at midcourt, spewing drool in every direction like some sort of rabid dog — or maybe the teething version of his popular monicker — and whipping the crowd into a frenzy after initiating an and-one sequence with a putback that gave the Celtics a six-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Guard Nate Robinson came running from behind Davis and vaulted onto his back as Big Baby flexed toward the crowd. ‘You were on my back?’ Davis asked Robinson as they sat next to each other at their joint postgame press conference. ‘You didn’t even notice,’ replied Robinson. ‘We’re like Shrek and Donkey. You can’t separate us.’ Davis smiled broadly and added, ‘You shouldn’t have let us two get up here.’”

Robert Mays, Boston Globe – “After Fisher hit several shots down the stretch of Game 3 to help give the Lakers a one-game edge over the Celtics, the 35-year-old point guard reacted with a flurry of emotions. No one could blame him. Questions about Fisher’s value to the Lakers cropped up during the first-round series against Oklahoma City and had persisted ever since. Tuesday was a tiny bit of redemption. Early in Bryant’s news conference Wednesday, a reporter asked if he understood the emotional display of his longtime teammate. ‘No, I’m not an emotional person,’ Bryant said. ‘I can’t understand.’ The response was cool, quick, and typical.”

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe – “Ray had a lot of company when he came out to shoot yesterday afternoon at 5:45. Several television cameras recorded his workout. Ray started with some post-up shots, right under the basket. Then he took 10 free throws (he made them all, but I think two drew iron). Then he took five middle-range jumpers from five spots around the perimeter. Left to right. Five from the corner, five from the left of the key, five from the top of the key, five from the right of the key, then five from the right corner. Then it was back to the free throw line. Then he went beyond the 3-point arc and repeated the previous drill. Then he ran up and down the left sideline. Then he started taking jumpers in motion. The Celtic Dancers were on the court for the entire routine. They always are. The Dancers move only when Ray needs the space where they are practicing. ‘We get out there three hours before the game,’ said Marina Ortega, director of the Dancers. ‘We share the court with Ray. We move when he goes beyond the 3-point line. It’s just something where we need to pay attention. That’s the reason we don’t have problems.’ There is zero interaction between Ray and the Celtic Dancers. Not a word. Not a glance. It’s an amazing demonstration of professionalism. By all parties. Ray finished his routine last night at 6:13. Twenty-eight minutes.”

Kelly Dwyer, Yahoo! – “Happy with his team’s defense with the reserves out there, Rivers promised himself that he wouldn’t bring his benched starters in until he had ridden out the wave. ‘I told my coaches, I said ‘At the six-minute mark, six points is the number.’ If they get it to a two-possession game, we’ve got to [return] one scorer at a time.’ ‘I want to give Doc a hug,’ Glen Davis said following the win. ‘I was really looking at the clock, like, when is he going to come get me?’ Were Rivers’ veteran starters upset at their bench demotion? ‘They were fine. I don’t think guys really care. Hell, [Rajon] Rondo and all of them, they were begging me to keep guys in. It was great. That was the loudest I’ve seen our bench, and it was our starters cheering from the bench. I thought it was terrific.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “Bryant nearly found a way to carry the Lakers to victory last night, using long, contested 3-pointers as his weapon, but it wasn’t his preferred weapon. Bryant, of course, would rather dash to the basket for acrobatic layups, or drive, stop, and lean back for fadeaways. The Celtics have to allow Kobe to score; they have no choice because he remains unstoppable. But they are using stifling defense to force Bryant into an uncomfortable zone. He looks irritated. He looks frustrated, just as he was when Artest missed his pass two consecutive times. Bryant scored 33 points in the Celtics’ 96-89 Game 4 victory, but 18 came on 3-pointers. Bryant converted no layups; his closest field goal was from 9 feet. He is not creating baskets with his quickness and array of moves. The Celtics are sending two defenders at him and he is attempting shots in those small windows, such as the ones Artest missed in the second half. Containing Bryant has been critical to the Celtics’ success. He is averaging 28.2 points for the series, but also 23.2 shots. A veteran whose dominance could be waning having to work feverishly to score. [...] ‘They’re a great scheming team,’ said Bryant, who is shooting 40.8 percent overall this series. ‘They have a strategy in place, and they execute extremely well. I feel pretty comfortable. Wasn’t pleased with the way I took care of the ball tonight. I thought I did a horrible job of that. But it’s a great defense.’”

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe – “Understand this about Glen Davis: He is a basketball player. He may look like a football player and he may harbor a secret desire to be a movie star, talk-show host or a contestant on ‘Dancing With The Stars,’’ but he is a pure basketball player. He is 6 feet 8 inches (maybe), and he often has a lot of trouble finishing underneath among the NBA redwoods, but he usually finds a way to make an impact on a basketball game, and last night he made one of his biggest. He was at his slashing, marauding, kamikaze best in the fourth quarter, leading the Celtics with his amazing range of skill and inspiring them with his emotion and desire, spearheading a bench brigade whose fourth-quarter effort gave the Celtics a 96-89 triumph that evened the NBA Finals at two games apiece. When this man has it going, he just about takes your breath away. He has amazingly quick feet, and is a far better individual defender than you’d ever imagine. He is smart, and has never had any trouble figuring out the Tom Thibodeau defensive schemes. He has truly great hands and is ambidextrous in close. He also has astonishing body control. He angles in up and through people. It kind of goes without saying he is strong. Put the entire package together and what you have is a basketball player.”

Bill Plaschke, LA Times – “Geez, they’ve done it now. A dozen minutes from taking a historically insurmountable lead in the NBA Finals on Thursday, the Lakers lost their legs, misplaced their brains, abandoned their guts, and gave the aging, inferior Boston Celtics the one thing they should not have given them. The Lakers gave them hope. Goodness, they’ve messed up now. Paul Pierce is bobbing his head and yakking again. Glen Davis is shaking his butt and clowning again. Kevin Garnett is bending at the knees and barking again. The TD Garden is rocking again. The Celtics’ cheerleading routine is being drowned out by ‘Beat L.A.’ chants again. The Celtics are improbably, but undoubtedly, championship contenders again. A series that felt finished two nights ago is now alive and tied at two games apiece after Boston outscored the Lakers by nine in the final period and stole a 96-89 victory that felt like a doubleheader sweep.”

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! – “‘I’m not going to put it on my shoulders to win or lose the game,’ Odom said. ‘We have to play together as a team.’ This is Lamar Odom in full. The personality that happily allows him to defer to others and at times makes him the ultimate third or fourth option is the same one that prevents him from assuming the pressure of stepping into an expanded set of responsibilities. He’s always had the talent to be one of the elite players in the game. He just never had the desire to take the job. ‘We have to make up for his size and shot-blocking ability and the way he protects the rim,’ Odom said of Bynum. ‘We have to realize as a team what he gives us and what Lamar gives us. As a team we have to rebound better. We gave [rebounds] up as a team. We have to box out as a team.’ Wait, there’s more. ‘It’s always team defense … we have to move the ball as a team … we do everything as a team … as a team we have to figure out what Andrew gave us and what we’re going to miss.’ Odom isn’t wrong. The game is won as a team. But the fact he wasn’t vocalizing an aggressive, ready-for-the-challenge mentality is worrisome. Someone needs to make something happen inside. Someone has to stop Glen Davis from pouring in 18 points. Someone has to play bigger than usual.”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “But on Thursday night, with an entire season riding on a mere 12 minutes of basketball, Doc Rivers threw emotional caution to the wind, and the result was one of the most unlikely fourth quarters in Celtics Finals history — one that vaulted Boston back into contention for Banner 18. The C’s were down 62-60 heading into the final quarter, and with the majority of Boston’s starters in need of a much-deserved rest, Rivers turned to Ray Allen and four Celtics subs to spell the stars. But in terms of emotional stability, you might as well have called it Ray Allen and four wild cards. Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, Tony Allen and Rasheed Wallace. Each contributes to the Celtics in his own way. Davis with grit, tenacity and hustle. Allen with lockdown defense and slashing offense. Wallace with his big body on the block, Jedi mind games on defense, and ability to stretch the opposition from three. Robinson with instant energy and more instant offense. But that’s at their best. At their worst, each is an emotional time bomb — capable of self-destruction at the drop of hat, or blow of a whistle. And as the five took the court for the fourth, that fear was running — faster than Robinson in transition — through Celtics Nation’s collective psyche. How long can they keep it together? Long enough to keep the game close? Long enough to get the starter rested? Long enough to keep the season alive? How long before one, two or more self-destruct? Only it never happened.”

Monique Walker, Boston Globe – “Bynum logged just 12 minutes, by far his fewest of the NBA Finals, leaving a void in the paint the Celtics were able to exploit in their 96-89 victory. The Lakers were beaten on the boards, 41-34; outmatched in the paint, 54-34; and stumped on second-chance points, 20-10. ‘Obviously we miss Andrew when he’s not out there because he’s been so effective just blocking shots and rebounding,’ forward Pau Gasol said. ‘Those two things alone are a big plus when he’s out there for us and it’s something that we’re going to need to continue to work on the next game.’ Now the Lakers may have to face the possibility Bynum may not be available Sunday. Bynum said a combination of pain and an inability to move effectively caused him to sit out a majority of the second half. He did not start the third quarter and played just 1:50 before sitting the rest of the game. ‘It bothered us in the second half not having Andrew be able to come out and play,’ Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ‘He tried a couple of minutes, but it just wasn’t there for him. We’re glad we have a couple days off and we can kind of get him back hopefully in position where he can help us out again.’”

Robert Mays, Boston Globe – “As the second half began, Bynum wasn’t included in the lineup. As a result, rather than matching up with Kevin Garnett, Gasol was checked by Kendrick Perkins. Perkins, who has about 30 pounds on Garnett, established an obstacle right from the start of the half. There was plenty of contact under the rim throughout the quarter, and Gasol’s repeated appeals to the referees went unheeded. The situation escalated to the point that Celtics coach Doc Rivers feared his center might be in danger of picking up a technical. ‘That was actually one of the reasons I said, ‘We’ve got to get [Perkins] out,’ ’ Rivers said, ‘because you could see it, the double technicals, it was about to come.’ With Perkins out, Rasheed Wallace (6 feet 10 inches tall) stepped in to guard the Gasol (7-0). And although the mass Perkins brings to the lane can slow Gasol, it’s Wallace’s extra reach that the Celtics’ coach sees as an advantage. Against the varied defenders, Gasol only had 8 points in the second half. ‘He’s got size and length,’’ Rivers said of Wallace. ‘Pau is a great offensive player, and it’s rare that he has to shoot over length. And he’s physical, Rasheed is physical. So if we can keep that body on him, that’s great.’”

Monique Walker, Boston Globe – “Derek Fisher gave the Lakers a magical performance in the fourth quarter of Game 3 Tuesday, posting 16 points in the victory. But last night Fisher fell into foul trouble and was limited in his contributions. He picked up his fourth foul with 5:17 left in the third quarter. Fisher left the game with the Lakers down, 53-52. His absence freed up Celtics guard Ray Allen, who scored 4 of the Celtics’ 8 points to end the quarter. ‘It affects us drastically on the defensive end of the floor as well as offensive end of the floor because [Fisher] does the majority of the ball handling, making sure we get into our offense and things flow,’ Bryant said.”

John Hollinger, ESPN – “Kevin Garnett clapped his hands and barked and screamed at Lamar Odom … while defending him off the dribble. Nate Robinson hollered in Odom’s face after a hard foul. Glen Davis showboated after baskets, making faces previously seen only on Maori warriors dancing the Haka and spewing enough drool to warp the court. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was as raw a display of emotion as you’ll see on a basketball court, by a club that was in desperation mode heading into Game 4. Boston rode that emotional wave in front of a raucous home crowd to beat the Lakers 96-89, evening the NBA Finals at two games apiece.”

Bob Hohler, Boston Globe – “‘Doc had trust in us and he rode with us, and we definitely took advantage of that opportunity,’ said Tony Allen, who converted a 3-point play when he was fouled on a layup to give the Celtics an 8-point lead with less than eight minutes to play. ‘There is definitely more to be done,’ Allen continued. ‘We don’t want to get complacent. We know there are three more games and we’re definitely going to have to bring that same kind of energy to Game 5.’ Wallace, who sank a deep 3-pointer to stretch Boston’s lead to 9 points midway through the final quarter, understood why some so-called experts were surprised by the bench’s role in the victory. ‘It’s real unusual,’ Wallace said, ‘but everybody on the team knows that Doc has confidence in them, as far as the second unit goes.’ There was no mystery to explain their performance, Wallace said. ‘You got guys who are hungry,’ he said, ‘and that’s what happens.’”

Steve Weinman, D-League Digest – “The combination of Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’ for the Celtics-Lakers Finals montage video followed by the theme from Rocky for the Celtics’ entrance to the court to warm up still gives me chills. For the second time in three years, my heart rate takes a disproportionate jump merely watching the video vacillate from Larry Bird dunking to Ray Allen with his head bowed in the tunnel to Kevin McHale clotheslining Kurt Rambis back to the live shot, this time filled by Kevin Garnett stalking the tunnel. Just like in 2008, I can already barely breathe, and we’re going to follow this with 18,624 fans standing to loudly greet the Eastern Conference champs as they actually take the floor? I’m on green overload. And all of that pales in comparison to the highlight of the pregame: the Celtics’ introduction. I’ll never forget my dad’s startled laugh when Kendrick Perkins barrels into Nate Robinson, knocking him from the paint to the sideline. The lights are down, the music is blaring, Eddie Palladino is screaming into the mic, and we have to strain to hear him because this crowd of green faithful really is that frenzied. But we can just make out my favorite arena phrase – “the captain aaaaaaaaand the Truth” – as Paul Pierce dances his way to the middle of the floor. For at least one more night, we’re here to watch the defining Celtic of this generation play for all the marbles. I can’t explain why, but there are tears in my eyes.

Nate Taylor, Boston Globe – “If there was any adjustment Pierce made after the first three games, it came from Rivers. Before Game 4, Rivers showed Pierce how the Lakers were giving him room to drive. Even if Artest was crowding Pierce on the perimeter, Rivers told him to put his head down and go to the basket — which led to Pierce’s biggest basket of the game. ‘I told him, ‘Boy, there were some great driving lanes for you. You’ve got to take them,’ ‘ said Rivers. On the first play of the game, Rivers had Pierce drive to the hoop. That resulted in a foul, and the coach said he thought that helped Pierce get into the right mentality. In the first quarter, Pierce scored in a fury, at times grabbing the ball and going right at Artest. Of the Celtics’ first 14 points, Pierce scored 10, which gave the Celtics an early lead. ‘He attacked early in the first quarter,’ Perkins said. ‘He got us into a pretty good start.’”

Nate Taylor, Boston Globe – “Appearing in the playoffs for the first time in his career, the 26-year-old knows the importance of finding ways to help the Celtics win. That means he has to do anything, and everything, Rivers wants. And that’s fine with Robinson, because he knows this: The only players who see the floor in the Finals are the ones Rivers has faith in. And Robinson has become one of those guys. Against the Lakers, Rivers has used Robinson to give Rajon Rondo rest. And the results have been there. In limited playing time, Robinson has been mostly productive, as in the Celtics’ win in Game 2 in Los Angeles when he scored 7 points in just six minutes — a performance that was hard to imagine a month ago. ‘I’ve been given the opportunity,’ Robinson said before last night’s Game 4. ‘He’s put me on the biggest stage, and hopefully I can keep that confidence in my coach.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Although Phil Jackson and Rivers have done their share of complaining about the officiating, the league hasn’t talked about fining either coach. ‘I haven’t seen what’s going on, but a little chirping is OK,’ said commissioner David Stern. ‘It shows that they’re human. It’s the howling that’s misdirected, and I haven’t heard them howling.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘I didn’t think it was ragged,’ countered Doc Rivers. ‘I just thought we missed shots.’ OK. ‘You know, (Rajon) Rondo’s got his head down at halftime,’ Rivers continued. ‘But we were getting point-blank layups. That’s a good thing. And I kept saying to guys, ‘There’s nothing negative about missed layups. It means that you’re getting layups.’ ‘ Doc paused. ‘That was my rationalization,’ he said.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “With Tony Allen, Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, and Rasheed Wallace setting the hardwood and the Lakers ablaze in the final period, the Celtics’ most effective lineup of the night also happened to be their most emotionally charged. So the moment the Celtics started to rally was the same moment the game seemed to fly off the hinges. The Celtics were in the middle of a 12-4 run, up, 74-66, with 7:46 left, when Wallace was hit with a tech for dancing halfway around the court after being whistled for a foul on Kobe Bryant under the basket. But when Bryant missed the technical free throw, you could hear Wallace saying, ‘Ball don’t lie!’”

Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated – “‘I’m not really concerned about [making adjustments], to be honest with you,’ said Bryant. ‘I’m more concerned about getting rebounds and getting the loose balls and stuff like that. When push comes to shove, I can always get a bucket.’ Truer words have not been spoken, at least not in this series. The Celtics have slowed Dwyane Wade and stifled LeBron James. They’ve marginalized Rashard Lewis and shut down Vince Carter. But Bryant is a different breed in the playoffs. It may take some impossible shots but, time and again, Bryant has proven that on this stage, the impossible is very much possible. Sure, Bryant will need help to win this series. He needs Pau Gasol to rise to the occasion and Andrew Bynum to squeeze three more games out of his achy knee. He needs Derek Fisher to knock down open shots and Ron Artest to play in control. But if he gets that help — just enough of it — Bryant has served notice that he is ready to put this team on his shoulders. Prepare accordingly.”

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If I weren’t a Celtics fan, this photo might be touching. It’s really romantic, ya know? But, and I don’t know maybe it’s just me, there’s something about two Lakers preparing to make out that makes me sick.

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