Boston 104, Los Angeles Lakers 93

[recap] [box score]

The Boston Celtics boarded a plane home Sunday night with a lot of unanswered questions. What the hell is wrong with Kevin Garnett? Can our bigs stay out of foul trouble? Why is LA beating us so badly on the boards and seemingly to every loose ball?

But they brought something else back East, too: A split in LA, which is really all they could have hoped for.

Game balls go to Ray Allen for his 27-point first half and Finals single-game record eight three-pointers and Rajon Rondo for taking over in the final few minutes, making several huge plays on both ends of the court. But this was a team win, a gutsy win in which Boston fought through the foul problems, fought through tough offensive nights from two of their best players, and fought through the Lakers taking away the momentum in the second half.

Bullets (strap in, because there are gonna be a bunch):

• Might as well get the discussion of the officiating out of the way early. I'll be interested to see and hear to what degree Lakers fans blame the refs for this loss. Kobe Bryant sat a big portion of the second and third quarters with foul trouble, and picked up his fifth early in the last period, taking away some of his offensive aggressiveness and limiting his effectiveness defensively. Kobe's final three fouls were debatable. No doubt, his foul problems affected the outcome of the game. But it would take a lot of gall to bitch about the officiating in a game in which you held a 41-26 free throw edge (and keep in mind that Boston went to the line several times in the final seconds as LA tried in vain to get back into the game). Boston shot a bunch more threes and with LA's size advantage, they should get to the line more, but a number of bad calls seemed to favor the home team.
• We can't win the series if Garnett doesn't play any better than he has in the first two games. He looks out of synch, even worse than he did at the beginning of the season, when he hadn't played in eight months and was trying to figure out how to be effective with a bum knee. He had six assists in Game 2 and got a late bucket to crawl in that actually seemed to spark the team, but he's been tentative on offense and he's not rebounding or defending. He also took himself out of rhythm early in the first, picking up his second foul by needlessly planting his shoulder into Gasol as the latter came upcourt. It was reminiscent of the somewhat bizarre incident in the Orlando series, in which Garnett, trying to draw the official's attention to the fact that Dwight Howard was handchecking him, repeatedly struck Howard with his forearm, drawing a quick second foul. I know he's a competitive guy who thrives on playing with an edge, but he needs to be smarter than that.
• Ray was incredible in the first half tonight. We can't expect him to continue to shoot quite as well as he did on Sunday, but if the Lakers are going to guard him with Derek Fisher, we need to keep riding him.
• Nate Robinson only played six minutes and was a -3 in that time, but his contribution was crucial. His seven points came at the start of the fourth quarter, when Rondo was gassed and needed a rest, and kept us within striking distance.
• There are some ugly aspects to Glen Davis' stat line, such as 4-13 from the field and four blocks against. But he also had five offensive rebounds and some hustle plays late, and kept attacking despite several frustrating missed layups.
• Shelden Williams was bad, but it's hard to blame him when he's played so sparingly.
• We've been battling foul trouble since the Orlando series, but Sunday was the worst so far: Garnett, Davis, Kendrick Perkins, and Rasheed Wallace each had three fouls by halftime. The first two games of the series have been called very tightly, but even if it loosens up a bit once we're back in Boston, it's hard to see this problem ending any time soon, given LA's size and skill up front. To that end, and fully recognizing what I said about Shelden Williams, above, I wonder if it's worth dressing Brian Scalabrine instead of Michael Finley or Marquis Daniels. Finley's Game 1 performance suggests he would only possibly be useful in a situation where we need a three-pointer, and Doc has absolutely no faith in Daniels. All Scal would give us is another six fouls, but they might come in handy one of these games.
• The best for last: Rondo was just remarkable in the fourth quarter tonight. His growth as a player can be summed up by his play in the last several minutes, when Bryant played well off of him. In the 2008 Finals, this strategy so rattled Rondo that Doc brought in the exiled Eddie House to close out Games 3 and 4 in LA. This year, a more confident Rondo attacked the basket repeatedly, and then nailed a huge jumper (reminiscent of Game 2 against Orlando) to put us up five. With KG in a funk and Pierce capably guarded by Ron Artest, Rondo is our second option on offense behind Ray. He also turned in the two signature defensive plays of the game, blocking a Fisher three-pointer from behind, and then poking the ball away from Bryant as Mamba rose for a three that would have cut Boston's lead to three with under a minute remaining. He was also seemingly the only Celtic going after defensive rebounds for a chunk of the game, and his offensive board and silky lefty putback with 3:19 to play put Boston up for good. All told, he had 19 points, 12 boards, and ten assists, with a great performance in crunch time. I love this kid.

Back to Boston for Game 3 on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the conclusion of Game 2. A quick turnaround would seemingly favor the more youthful Lakers, but the Celtics will be sleeping in their own beds and will have what should be a great Garden crowd to pull them through.

Boston has technically swiped home-court advantage over the Lakers, but frankly, I expect that the series will end in LA; winning four in a row is probably too much to ask. But two out of three in Boston is probably vital, and Tuesday is the time to start.