KEY POINTS:
BOSTON - The Boston Celtics survived a furious fightback by the Los Angeles Lakers to hold on for a 108-102 win on Sunday, the victory giving the Eastern Conference champions a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven US National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals series.
The teams now head to
the West Coast with the Lakers needing to win at least two of the three games at home or watch the Celtics return to Boston with a 17th NBA title.
Game Three is at the Staples Centre on Tuesday.
The Lakers will feel aggrieved to be leaving Boston without the series level at 1-1 after staging a dramatic fourth quarter rally that fell just short.
With the Celtics leading by 24 points and eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Lakers sliced the Boston lead to 104-102 with 22 seconds left on the clock.
But with the capacity crowd on the edge of their seats, Paul Pierce nailed two clutch free throws to give Boston a 106-102 lead and the cushion needed to seal their victory.
"I wasn't happy about the way we ended the game," Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters.
"But we're up 2-0 and now we have to go on the road.
"We've got to play through 48 minutes and I didn't think we did that.
"I think we got cute when we got the lead. We started trying to make sensational plays instead of keeping it simple."
Pierce, who injured his knee in the third quarter of Game One and was taken from the court in a wheelchair only to make a dramatic return, showed no signs of the injury to lead the Celtics with 28 points.
Leon Powe, who averaged just eight points a game during the regular season, came off the bench to contribute 21 for the Celtics while Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen scored 17 each.
"I didn't really think about the injury because once I step on the court, it pretty much goes out the window," said Pierce. "I felt good, I just went out and played.
"We did our job, we held home court."
The crowd erupted when Pierce and centre Kendrick Perkins, who was also injured in Game One, took their place on the court for the tip-off.
The Lakers battled their way to a 22-20 first quarter lead but the Celtics responded with a 10-0 run to open the second and did not trail again, taking a 54-42 advantage into halftime.
The Celtics stepped up the pressure in the third quarter, opening up a 16-point cushion before the Lakers trimmed the deficit to nine.
Riding the energy of the crowd, Boston hit back with a 13-0 run to take control of the game, 81-59, in the final minute of the third quarter.
The Lakers, however, began to hit from long range, nailing seven three-pointers in the final quarter and forcing the Celtics to dig deep for the win.
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, the NBA's regular season most valuable player, struggled to find his range early on but finished with a game-high 30 points.
- REUTERS
