2. Who Replaces Perkins For Celtics?
ESPN.com
LOS ANGELES -- The official word on Kendrick Perkins came from Doc Rivers, who said it "doesn't look great" for the Celtics to have their starting center available for Game 7.
The unofficial word came from a well-placed Celtics mole, someone in the know who was a heckuva lot more definitive: "He's done."
On a night when Bill Russell walked out in disgust early in the fourth quarter, unable to watch his old team take such a brutal beating, another important big man in green was a goner much, much earlier.
Perkins' knee buckled as Andrew Bynum came over his back going for a rebound midway through the first quarter, and the NBA Finals suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse for the Boston Celtics in an 89-67 loss Tuesday to the Los Angeles Lakers that forced a Game 7 on Thursday night.
"We'll see what's up tomorrow," Perkins said as he hobbled to the team bus, acknowledging that he felt and heard a pop in his knee when it buckled under the weight of Bynum's 285 pounds.
Officially, the injury was deemed a sprain. Further word on the exact extent of the damage will come Wednesday after Perkins likely undergoes an MRI, but a clue to the severity became apparent to the Celtics players when they arrived in their locker room at halftime, trailing by 20, and saw that Perkins had been escorted to a back room in a vain attempt by the Celtics' staff to keep him and his injury from being the type of downer that would affect the team in the second half.
As it turned out, the Celtics were already so down -- from both a basketball and an emotional standpoint, having been outrebounded by an astounding 30-13 in the first half -- that there would never even be a hint of a comeback in the final 24 minutes.
"You know, we've done that this year, we've lost games," Rivers said. "We've been blown out in some of those games, and if you do that against a team like the Lakers who are ready to play, and play desperate, you're going to lose."
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5. Extreme Behavior
ESPN.com
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TUESDAY'S BEST
Bryant Kobe Bryant, Lakers
He set the tone early, scoring 11 points as the Lakers jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Bryant finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds. -
TUESDAY'S WORST
Wallace Rasheed Wallace, Celtics
His performance sums up the night for the Celtics. The big man missed all seven of his attempts from the floor, including going 0-for-6 on 3-pointers, and finished scoreless. -
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
"That was one of the key factors, 100 percent true. That was not the only factor. Was it a big factor? Sure."
-- Tom Izzo pointing out that the fact he was unable to talk to LeBron James played a part in his decision to stay at Michigan State
7. Pair Of Injured Bigs
Jon Soohoo/NBAE/Getty Images8. Lakers' Bench Provides Support
ESPN.com
LOS ANGELES -- It was just one play in a 22-point blowout, so let's not get carried away about its significance. Nonetheless, it symbolized the two meta-trends that enabled the Lakers' 89-67 waxing of Boston in Game 6, and in that sense it was a defining moment.
The play came when Jordan Farmar dove past the Celtics' Rajon Rondo to come up with a loose ball after the Lakers deflected a Rondo pass into the backcourt. From a prone position near the 3-point line, Farmar skidded the rock along the floor to Kobe Bryant, who drove the lane and drew a shooting foul. The two free throws began an 11-2 run that put L.A. up by 20 midway through the second quarter, and from there the rout was on.
The symbolism? First, Farmar's hustle play was the most glaring example of the superior, backs-against-the-wall effort exhibited by L.A. throughout Game 6. Between the urgency of facing elimination, the spirit of a raucous home crowd and, perhaps, fresher legs from sleeping in their own beds after a cross-country flight, the Lakers were quicker to every loose ball, rebound and rotation.
Second, Farmar's excellence was emblematic of the total domination by L.A.'s bench over Boston's. The Celtics' reserves had made a surprisingly strong impact on the series in the first five games, but L.A.'s subs did little of note in the three games in Beantown.
That all completely changed Tuesday. Through three quarters, the Lakers' reserves had outscored Boston's 24-0; the C's subs closed the gap in the fourth to 25-13, but by that time their team was down by 25 points.
"I just thought the Lakers played harder," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "Their bench gave unbelievable energy."
As for the play, Farmar said he had no choice.
"The ball was on the floor," Farmar said. "It's the NBA Finals in an all-or-nothing situation, so you've got to get to it. I saw Kobe out the corner of my eye, so I dove and got it over to him."
The bench differential was a reversal from Game 4 in particular, when Boston's Glen Davis and Nate Robinson dominated the second half. Farmar's play provided a coincidental reminder. In that contest, Farmar went to the floor for a loose ball, but his attempt to get it to a teammate ended instead with the now-famous basket-and-foul by Davis that unleashed a torrent of slobber on an unsuspecting TV audience.
Farmar's dive kicked off the Lakers' run, but he wasn't done. He finished off a breakaway with a dunk on Kevin Garnett at the end of the run that had him giddy enough to talk trash to the Celtics' vocal Vesuvius, and he added a driving layup in that stretch.
"I was just into the game," Farmar said. "That's when I'm at my best, not thinking, just letting it all hang out."
He wasn't alone, either; L.A.'s other reserves stepped up, too. Shannon Brown returned to service after playing only 19 seconds in Game 5, adding back-to-back dunks in the third quarter. The first was a spectacular alley-oop slam off a lob from Pau Gasol -- one he compared to his soaring slam in Game 5 of the conference finals against Denver a year ago. Although that earlier one changed the entire momentum of the series, this one was more of an exclamation point that put the Lakers up by 20 midway through the third quarter.
"Today, my number was called and I tried to make the most of my minutes," Brown said. "I had a lot of pent-up energy."
Sasha Vujacic added a strong contribution, as well, rediscovering his shooting stroke to score eight points, including two 3-pointers, and, like his cohorts, contributed to the energetic D that helped hold Boston to just 67 points.
And Lamar Odom, who got most of the votes for "LVP" in our informal writers' poll before Game 6, contributed eight points and 10 boards while playing 28 minutes in place of an ailing Andrew Bynum.
In an elimination game, the timing couldn't possibly have been better. The bench ably navigated the fine line of bringing energy without getting too pumped up.
"Historically, benches are much more comfortable on their home floor," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson (though not his bench players, based on their season splits). "But the energy and the direction they had was what I was pleased with. I felt they were directed and they had an idea what they wanted to get accomplished out there on the floor. That was important."
"We didn't get out of our character," Brown said. "We stayed within ourselves and just turned it up a couple notches."
It seemed as though they pulled a Spinal Tap, in fact, and turned it up to 11 -- too high for the Celtics to match a day after a cross-country flight.
As a result, we're down to a rubber match on Thursday for the championship. And if L.A.'s reserves provide anywhere near the impact they did in Game 6, it should put the Lakers a long way toward claiming a second consecutive championship.
9. Celtics Fail To Clinch
The Celtics blew a chance to win the NBA title with a 22-point loss to the Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night. That ties the fourth-largest margin of defeat for a team that was one win from winning the NBA championship. The record for the largest margin of defeat in that situation is 35 by Seattle against Washington in 1978, followed by 33-point losses by the Lakers against Philadelphia in 1982 and against Indiana in 2000. The Knicks also lost by 22 points to the Lakers in a game in which they had a chance to wrap up the 1970 Finals. The good news for the Celtics -- three of those teams went on to win the title anyway (Seattle was the only team that didn't).
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