Celtics get what they deserve in Game 5 -- bad karma and all

LOS ANGELES -- Boston deserved this. Deserved to come close to the NBA championship. Deserved to feel it. Taste it. Almost have it.

And then lose it.

Shame on you, Kendrick, and shame on the Celtics for this subterfuge. (Getty Images)

The Celtics deserved every bit of Sunday night, every second of Game 5, every moment of misery they'll experience for the next two days after making two enormous comebacks in the same game and coming away with nothing to show for it. No win. No title. No vacation.

The Lakers won 103-98 to send the NBA Finals back to Boston for Game 6 on Tuesday, when the Celtics very well could -- and definitely should -- close out the series for the 17th NBA title in franchise history.

In the meantime, though, there will be pain and suffering, as there should be.

See, Boston lied to us. Lied to you, lied to me, lied to everyone. Boston deceived all of us by announcing on Saturday that Kendrick Perkins would start in Game 5 -- when Perkins knew he wouldn't play. I'm not speculating here, OK? I've got the Celtics red-handed, busted by their own words.

On Saturday, Rivers was asked if Perkins would be in the starting lineup.

"Yeah," he said.

He was asked again, immediately, if he was saying Perkins would start in Game 5.

"Yeah," he said again.

And then on Sunday, an hour before tip-off, he said Perkins wouldn't start, wouldn't be active, probably wouldn't even play in Game 6, if there was a Game 6, because of his injured shoulder. He said Perkins had told him Sunday morning that he wasn't going to play.

Which is interesting, considering what happened next. When Rivers was finished speaking to the media before Game 5, I raced to the Boston locker room with literally 45 seconds to spare before it was closed to the media. Perkins was sitting there in a dark business suit, dressed for a funeral. I asked him when he knew he wasn't going to be able to play in Game 5.

"I knew yesterday," he said.