"I told the guys, 'We're up, 2-0, and I'm happy with the win,' " Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I just wasn't very happy with the way we played."
Said forward Kevin Garnett: "All year long we've been taking each game a game at a time, and LA will be no different from that."
The Celtics were up 24 with 7:55 left in the fourth after a 20-foot jumper by Garnett (17 points, 14 rebounds). A James Posey 3-pointer gave Boston a 16-point lead, 102-86, with 3:38 left to play. While the Celtics seemed en route to a blowout, the Lakers weren't ready to give in before going home.
The Lakers used a 14-2 run, capped by a Vladimir Radmanovic dunk, to slice the deficit to 104-100 with 1:03 remaining. After being fouled, Lakers star Kobe Bryant nailed two free throws with 38.4 seconds left to trim the deficit to 104-102.
"You just keep playing," Bryant said. "You don't know what's going to happen. Mathematically we felt like if we cut it down to about 10 . . . the goal was to cut it down to 10 with about seven minutes to go. We weren't able to do that, so after that it was about slicing it and getting it to single digits and applying more and more pressure."
After being fouled on a drive, Paul Pierce made two free throws with 22.8 seconds left to give Boston a 106-102 lead.
After Pierce tipped a 3-point attempt by Sasha Vujacic, Posey got the ball and was fouled. With 12.6 seconds left, he made two free throws, sealing the huge home win.
"I was a little disappointed in our play in the last six minutes of the game," said Pierce. "I thought we just weren't aggressive enough to put the game away. I thought we wanted the time to just run out.
"I was a little lackadaisical with the ball. It's a great win, but definitely a lesson to be learned in that last six minutes. But just down the stretch, we've got to be a little more aggressive."
Said Rivers: "I thought the fourth quarter was awful."
Pierce overcame a right knee sprain suffered in Game 1 to score 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field. He was 4 of 4 from 3-point range and 6 of 7 at the line. He also played 41 minutes, saying the knee brace he wore helped and that he will wear it in Game 3.
