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LOS ANGELES -- Somehow this happened. Somehow an NBA game began Tuesday night featuring Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and Lamar Odom, and that game ended up being decided by Sasha Vujacic.
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| The Lakers turn to a hot hand off the bench, which delivers in a big way. (AP) |
If the Lakers were going to win Game 3 and make something of these NBA Finals, Vujacic had to be the story Tuesday night. He had to, because Gasol refused. And because Odom freaked himself out. And because Derek Fisher's story days are over. And because Kobe can't be the story every game, tempting as that is. Bryant scored 36 points, but he needed help.
He needed Sasha Vujacic.
And for the first time in five weeks, Vujacic delivered in a very big way.
Vujacic scored 20 points -- more than Garnett and Pierce combined -- including the game's biggest basket, a 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, to help the Lakers beat Boston 87-81 to cut the Celtics' lead in the NBA Finals to 2-1. Game 4 is Thursday. Same time, same place.
Same story? Doubtful. Other than Bryant, none of the Lakers -- not Gasol, not Odom, not Vujacic -- is good enough to be the story two games in a row. Vujacic took his turn Tuesday night, and the Lakers were opportunistic enough to turn that into a victory, but they know they can't count on Vujacic to score 20 again in Game 4. They can't count on him to show up again in Game 4.
The last time Vujacic scored in double figures was Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against San Antonio, and Vujacic didn't exactly blow a fuse in the scoreboard that night. He had 10 points. Until Tuesday, his best game in the playoffs had been Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against Utah, when he had 15 points, but his impact on the Lakers still has been undeniable. Six times in the last six weeks he has scored in double figures -- and five times the Lakers have won those games.
"He was huge," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of Vujacic. "I thought he was the biggest part ... Kobe was fantastic, but I thought Vujacic was the key to the game."
At risk of repeating myself, here it comes: Bryant doesn't need a lot of help to win games, even at the highest level of the NBA playoffs. Give him a little help -- just a smidgen -- and the Lakers will win the 2008 NBA title. That's a testament to Bryant's greatness, and this NBA season's lack thereof. Without a clear dominant team, the trophy might just go to the league's clear dominant player -- if that player can get just a little bit of help.
Vujacic gave him a little bit more than that, which is why the last six minutes were relatively comfortable for the Lakers. In the latter half of the fourth quarter Boston had just one shot at tying the score, and Eddie House missed it -- an open 12-footer -- with the Celtics trailing 78-76. Otherwise the Lakers cruised down the stretch, especially once Vujacic buried that 3-pointer from the corner for an 81-76 lead.
That 3-pointer came right after Vujacic had missed a 3-pointer. A lesser player, or a less confident player, wouldn't have been so quick to shoot another one. Not with Kobe on the floor. But with Bryant double-teamed 40 feet from the basket, the Lakers worked the ball to Vujacic, and he doesn't pass up those shots. Not ever.
"I live for those shots," he said.
