First off, kudos to everyone who made an appearance at TBL after-dark last night. We’ll break out the top shelf liquor Thursday night. As for the fumbling Lakers … do these guys even resemble the dominant team in the second half of the season and the first three rounds of the postseason? Their network of woes – like their inability to get easy shots or force tempo – continued last night, and for a few sketchy moments there, it appeared as if the Celtics would surge ahead 3-0.

The Lakers clung to a two-point lead with two minutes left following a KG bucket, and Phil Jackson finally remembered, ‘oh yeah, we’ve got Kobe’ and the MVP drew the double team after crossing half court, pitched it into Lamar Odom, who swung a pass out to Sasha Vujacic, and the Yugoslavian pretty-boy calmly stroked a triple to end the threat.

Positive news for Boston fans: The Celtics shot just 34 percent from the field and Paul Pierce was hindered by foul trouble and made just 2-of-14 shots, yet Boston still had a chance to win in the fourth. Not-so-positive news for LA fans: Derek Fisher is now a combined 8-for-23 in the series, the Lakers finally got to the foul line (34 attempts), but made just 61 percent of them, and the non-Kobe portion of the starting lineup was held to single digits and none of them shot better than 33 percent from the field.

Through three games, this much is clear: the Celtics are the better team, and defense still rules. The Lakers came in averaging 99 points per game this postseason – that has tanked to 92 – and it’s be worse if not for a fluky 4th quarter in game two.