Ray Allen, the Boston guard hit 3-pointers one after the other against the helpless Los Angeles Lakers. He made seven in the first half and finished with a finals-record eight 3′s in the Celtics’ 103-94 victory Sunday night.
“There’s no better place, moment, time … to win a game, and to win in a great fashion,” Allen said. “I don’t know what record it is that people are telling me that I got, but it’s great to have, great to be able to look back on it and say I did that. This is definitely our time.”
Kobe Bryant scored 21 points while struggling with foul trouble for the Lakers, who couldn’t catch up to Boston’s amazing guards in Los Angeles’ first home playoff loss since last season’s Western Conference finals.
Pau Gasol had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers, and Andrew Bynum added 21 points and six rebounds.
“It’s a series,” Bryant yawned. “You’re trying to stay even-keel. You don’t get too high, don’t get too low after a win or a loss. You just go into the next one and take care of business.”
“Our big guys played great,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We didn’t get the ball often enough to them, or in a good enough position many times, and a lot of our outside shooting was not that [good]. … In a sequence like this, there’s no doubt it’s a blow to us to lose the homecourt, but we anticipated this might happen, and we’re just going to have to go pick it up.”
The Lakers must now turn their attention immediately towards regaining home court advantage by claiming victory for the eighth consecutive playoff series on their opponent’s court, the first chance coming on Tuesday evening in Beantown.
