With the Lakers having lost almost all of a onetime 17-point lead, Fisher scored four times in the next five minutes and five times in all, capping his big fourth period with a driving transition layup that hit high on the glass and fell through the hoop for an old-fashioned 3-point play that gave his team an 87-80 lead with 48.3 seconds to go.
After Game 2 the entire basketball world was rhapsodizing about Rajon Rondo, the certified Next Great Thing among NBA point guards. No one was paying much attention to the LA point guard, who is a four-door sedan to Rondo’s Porsche.
But last night Rondo was toned down. He had a few blazing moments, but he was far from the other-worldly guard who had taken over Game 2 at Staples Center. In the end he was upstaged by the steady, unspectacular, almost plodding veteran, who simply took advantage of his opportunities at the most important stage of the game.
It was LA, 68-67, following a Rondo excursion to the hoop early in the fourth. LA had led by 17 (37-20) in the second quarter, 14 (54-40) as late as the opening minute of the third quarter and by 9 (62-53) with 3:39 remaining in the third. But the Celtics kept chipping away and chipping away, and seemed, quite frankly, inevitable when they finally got it down to 1 and then regained possession. The crowd was screaming “Beat LA!’’ The momentum was clear.
But that would prove to be the only time they would be 1 down with the ball, for on the next possession referee Bill Kennedy called a mysterious off-the-ball offensive foul on, of all people, Ray Allen, who was already deep into what must go down as the worst game of his playoff career. Zero-for-13 says it all, wouldn’t you say?
Fisher made him pay with a tough, professional drive to the basket to make it 70-67. When a Glen Davis free throw cut it to 72-70, Fisher popped one in from the lane. He came out of a timeout to hit another jumper (76-70). The Celtics turned it over at 76-73 and Fisher hit another stop-and-popper. This was all Kobe-like stuff.
