Simon Lewis
THEY were writing the obituaries of the Boston Celtics's NBA Championship hopes at half-time of last night's Game Four of the NBA Finals.
Trailing 2-1 in the best of seven series and 45-42 in the game to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Celtics looked as good as buried by their perennial rivals from the west coast.
Celtics fans at the TD Banknorth Garden had just seen a miserable half from their team as Doc Rivers' players continued to prove ineffective in front of the basket and Lakers seemed set fair for a repeat of the title they had inherited from Boston 12 months ago.
To make matters worse for them, that first half had been merely a continuation of Tuesday night's woeful Game Three performance at the Garden when, contrary to the promise made to them by Paul Pierce after a storming Game Two win in LA last Sunday, the Celtics did not stay unbeaten at home and would require a return trip to the Staples Centre if they were to regain the Championship won in 2008.
That Game Three loss dealt a big psychological blow to the Celtics and after last night's first half, it looked like they had failed to respond positively to it.
No team has ever come back from a 3-1 finals deficit so Boston needed to come up big in the second half and show they had not lost their heart or their gumption earlier in the week.
This time they did not let their fans down, despite a first-half horror show, winning out 96-89..
In 2008, when the Celtics bossed the Lakers, the best big man on the court was Kevin Garnett while Paul Pierce ran the show all over the court.
Two years on and the Lakers' Pau Gasol represented the best big on the court while his team-mate Kobe Bryant had reasserted his superiority as the best all-court player.
And, given the Celtics' continued lack of potency on the offensive, Game Four began to represent the point at which everyone concerned, from players to fans, realised the Lakers were the superior outfit.
Ray Allen had been the chief culprit for the Celtics. His performance in Game 2 had the pundits purring, labelling him one of the best shooting guards in NBA history after a Finals-record eight three-pointers.
That performance in LA was kind of a kiss of death for Allen, though, as in Game Three and into the first half of Game Four he was 1-22 from the field.
It wasn't just in open play, Rajan Rondo, the emerging leader of this Boston team, was struggling from the line as well, even the free throws failing to go down.
And yet.
And yet Boston were still in the game, just three points down on the Lakers at the half at 45-42 and by the time the third quarter was drawing to a close it was a see-saw game, the Garden crowd up and down in their seats like yo-yos as the momentum swung back and forth in sync with Boston's shooting accuracy.
Approaching half-way through the fourth quarter, it was the Lakers playing catch-up as they trailed 74-66 with 7:25 left on the clock and when, with just 35 seconds to play, Bryant's pass back to Lamar Odom was intercepted by Rondo and he charged back up court to give the Celtics a 92-84 lead, it was the Lakers who now looked buried.
The Celtics had rallied, scoring 34 fourth-quarter points having managed just 60 in the preceding three periods and nailng 12 of 19 field goals when they had managed just 39 per cent in open play.
And now it will be Lakers head coach Phil Jackson who will have to sit and stew and wait and see if his Lakers can summon the same sort of heart shown last night by Rivers' Celtics when Game Five comes around back in Boston on Sunday night.
