Boston 92, Los Angeles Lakers 86

[recap] [box score]

When someone puts on a brilliant display of individual basketball, the way Kobe Bryant did Sunday night, it's sometimes difficult to keep sight of the big picture. As Kobe nailed jumper after jumper with Boston defenders draped all over him in the third quarter of Game 5, each shot seemingly more difficult than the previous one, it was hard to not be in awe of what he was doing.

And yet, during a stretch that spanned about 14 minutes of game time, in which Kobe scored 23 straight Laker points, Boston's lead went from one point to 13.

Here's what I think is most interesting, and perhaps most telling, about what transpired: There was absolutely no reason for Kobe to simply take over the game the way he did.

From the four-minute mark of the second period until just 2:15 remained in the third, Kobe scored 23 straight Laker points. The first two of those points actually gave LA a one-point lead, and it wasn't until the second half, when he tallied the first 19 Laker points of the third quarter, that Kobe really started forcing the action and looking to shoot on every possession, so let's narrow our focus to that starting point.

Los Angeles trailed 45-39 at halftime. Sure, 39 points are a paltry total for a half of basketball, and sure, no one on the Lakers was doing much offensively. But a six-point deficit is nothing to panic about, especially with Boston shooting somewhere around 60 percent for the game. All things considered, LA should have been relatively happy with its position.

But then Kobe tried to take over in the second half, and as much as people want to tell you "he kept the Lakers in the game," you could argue that he also took them out of it. Conventional wisdom in basketball is that when guys aren't involved in the offense, they don't play as hard, they don't rebound, they don't defend. It's why you reward big guys for running the floor by giving them the ball on the break. It's why you spread the ball around on offense.

As Kobe dribbled all over the floor Thursday night looking for an opening to shoot, launching 28-footers and double-clutch jumpers with defenders smothering him, his teammates gradually withdrew from the game. Even though he made those shots, his display prevented Pau Gasol and the other Lakers from finding a rhythm, kept Boston's bigs from having to work on defense and possibly getting in foul trouble.

A few more stats to drive this point home. During Kobe's stretch of 23 straight:

• All five Boston starters scored. Paul Pierce had 14, Kevin Garnett had seven, Ray Allen had six, Kendrick Perkins had four, and Rajon Rondo had two points to go along with five assists.
• Kobe made nine shots from the field. Three were assisted.
• Boston made 15 shots from the field. Ten were assisted.

I am very confident that if this is the Lakers offense from here on out, we'll be celebrating our 18th championship later this week.

This was far from a perfect performance for Boston, however. Some negatives, in bullet form:

• 16 turnovers. Rajon Rondo was the biggest culprit with seven; back his out and it's a much more acceptable number. Still, I was pleased with Rondo's play for the most part. From the get-go, he attacked, and even though his hands couldn't catch up to his brain sometimes and he forced the action on multiple occasions, we're much better off when he attacks. We need more of that mindset, with a bit better execution, in Game 6. Basically, we need him to play for a whole game like he did in the final few minutes of Game 2.
• 16 offensive rebounds for LA. For the first time in this series, Boston seemed to make more hustle plays than LA, but the defensive glass was a problem. We need to do a better job of putting a body on guys and going to the boards (although we did out-rebound the Lakers for the second straight contest and third time in the series).
• A three-plus minute scoreless stretch late in the fourth quarter. We went to the Paul Pierce iso offense with like four minutes to go and something like an 12-point lead. That's too early to slow the game down like that, even as Paul Pierce was having his best game of the series against an increasingly overmatched Ron Artest.

But, of course, there was plenty of good:

• Pierce was really good all night. He didn't exactly match Kobe bucket for bucket and turned in a Jerry Stackhouse/Rip Hamilton line (27/2/2), but it's good to see him solving Artest a little bit.
• Garnett was brilliant, and for the third straight game, looked to be as close to his old self as he's ever gonna get. 18/10/3 with two blocks and five huge steals. KG was flying all over the court in the second half and played a big part in keeping Gasol and Lamar Odom more or less under wraps.
• The hustle plays I mentioned before were huge. In particular, I'm thinking of Ray Allen flying out of bounds to save the ball to Rondo after Rondo stripped Kobe, leading to a Rondo layup that put Boston up ten with 5:18 to go. I'm also thinking of the way Pierce ripped the ball away from Kobe after Artest missed two free throws down five with like 47 seconds left. There were others -- Tony Allen's spectacular stuff of Gasol, Rondo's acrobatic upturned-palm tip-in over two Lakers, a number of offensive rebounds and loose balls in the final quarter. It was nice to see these plays go our way.
• Boston shot some absurd percentage for most of the game, finishing at 56 percent despite going pretty cold in the fourth quarter. Don't dismiss it as some sort of fluke: This was us finally converting the open looks we've been getting for three games now. I sound like a broken record, I'm sure, but we're getting good shots and the Lakers aren't. If this keeps up, we win. And keep in mind that Ray didn't hit a single three-pointer in three games in Boston. To win two of those games is more than we could reasonably ask for.

Back to LA for Game 6 on short rest. As well as we're playing and as much as Andrew Bynum's knee is limiting him and Artest is struggling and Gasol and Odom look like they are regressing into the players who shrunk from the spotlight in 2008, Boston needs to come out prepared to face the Laker team they saw in Game 1. They need to be prepared for anything: Disfavorable officiating, a good crowd, a positive offensive contribution from someone other than Bryant, another stretch where it seems that Kobe can't miss. Boston is talented enough and has the right scheme to weather these storms and emerge triumphant.

Tip's at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.