LOS ANGELES — Hollywood. Lakerswouldn’t.
At the respite 8:40 into the first quarter, with the Lakers racing past the Celtics as rabbits would mock turtles, the P.A. announcer announced: “If the Lakers win tonight and hold the Celtics under 100 points, everyone in attendance will get two free tacos tomorrow.”
(The retail value of the tacos is 99 cents.)
The Celtics were on pace — a terrapin’s pace — at the timeout to score fewer than 50 points.
TACO TIME!
L.A. was ahead 24-7, 35-14 (end of opening quarter), 45-21, 58-40 (end of half) and 70-50.
The Celtics and the Lakers were tied at 73 early in the fourth quarter.
HOLD THE SALSA!
That Malibu Hills crowd in rose-colored Porsches wasn’t worrying about tacos and champagne anymore. The Lakers put themselves in the precious position of setting a dubious NBA record — losing the biggest lead in the Finals (24 points) since the league started keeping such dubious records in 1971.
Boston went on a 21-3 run in the third quarter and an 8-0 flash in the fourth quarter to perform the miracle of a marvel of a rally of a comeback.
Good news for Lakers fans. The Celtics were held three points under 100.
Bad news for Lakers fans. The Lakers lost, and the Celtics own a decisive 3-1 advantage in the series.
Tortoises over Hares.
The P.A. announcer didn’t announce at the end. He and 18,997 murmured.
The Celtics, who didn’t play a lick of offense for much of the first half, licked the Lakers with defense in the second half.
The Lakers were trapped in a whirlpool and a cesspool. After the Celtics had held the Lakers to 15 points in the third quarter, coach Phil Jackson was put on the spot on national TV and asked how it happened.
“I don’t know,” he said. “How did they do it?”
They did it by improving their shot selection, their shooting percentage and their perimeter spacing. They did it by limiting Kobe Bryant to only 17 points and the Lakers’ bench to only 15 points and by keeping the Lakers from penetrating and passing. They did it by switching Paul Pierce, by his request, to defend Bryant in the second half, and they did it, their coach Doc Rivers said, by “not giving up on themselves. It was nothing I did.”
But Rivers runs through it. He turned to a smaller lineup, and Eddie House and James Posey — of the Nuggets long ago — had 11 and 18.
It was suggested that the Celtics haven’t shown their best yet. It is definite that the Lakers have revealed their worst.
“Some turnaround in that game,” Jackson said later. “The air went out of the building. The momentum turned around in the third quarter.”
Apparently, offenses win Western Conferences, but defense, obviously, wins titles. When the Celtics bolted down their defense, the Lakers dipped from 65 percent shooting in the first quarter to 28 percent in the third quarter.
The Kobe Factor is immense again.
In all these playoff games, Bryant can’t quite decide who or what — and when — he wants to be.
He had two attempts from the field — two? — in the first quarter and made neither. The Lakers had sprinted out by 21 points, but their leading man was a supporting player. He couldn’t have gotten a Screen Actors Guild card.
Bryant was 0-for-4 at the half and 2-for-7 after three. Pierce wanted to be on Kobe, and Ray Allen, who had been guarding the MVP, said later: “I was all for it. Let him do it.” Pierce said he “felt like I could be a little bit more physical on (Bryant). I didn’t think he would be able to post me as easy as he want to. . . . I’m a little bit taller than Ray, so I can get a hand up, challenge him a little bit more. . . . If you can go out there and make him working for everything he got, you give yourselves a chance.”
But Bryant wasn’t working hard for anything. “One of the things I was concerned about was that Kobe hadn’t scored a field goal in the first half . . . ” Jackson said. Everybody in America had to wonder.
He took himself out of his game. He should have taken himself out of the game. Houdini and Hoffa never quite disappeared like this.
Bryant said it made no difference who was guarding him “because they were determined that I wouldn’t beat them.”
He said he would get over the game “with wine and beer and shots — about 20 shots.” But he didn’t have 20 shots, and the Lakers have no shot to win the NBA championship.
Shortly after the game was over, the team formerly known as the Lakers filed into the locker room as the singer Prince, currently known as Prince, quickly fled down the hallway.
He was not singing “Purple Reign.” He probably went away humming Celtic green.
Prince was not in a hurry to get free tacos.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
