Picture Gallery (LAT)

June 10 - Boston. An unexpected bunch of players made the difference for the Celtics in the fourth quarter to allow Boston to tie the NBA Finals series 2-2 with a 96-89 win at home.

The Lakers stayed in the game for three quarters despite the absence of Andrew Bynum in the middle and they were even leading by two, 62-60 at the end of the third. But with Nate Robinson, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace and Tony Allen plus the only starter Ray Allen on the floor, the Celtics opened the fourth with a 14-4 run and the dreams of going up 3-1 in the series slipped away from L.A.'s hands.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis bullied Gasol and Odom inside, taking advantage of his width body and his graceful movements to score 18 points in 22 minutes and the small and energetic Nate Robinson was the spark they were needing scoring 12 in 17 minutes while leading the reserves. Kobe Bryant scored 33 points but all his shots were well contested by the Celtics defense and he had just 2 assists and committed 7 turnovers. Kobe scored 12 of his points in the fourth while trying to keep the Lakers alive. He made 3 free throws with 1:07 remaining to get the L.A. with six, 84-90 but in the next possession his pass to Odom was stolen by Rajon Rondo, the NBA's steals leader in the season, who ran the floor for a layup and basically ended the game.

Paul Pierce, who disappeared for long periods of time still managed to get 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, Kevin Garnett added 13 points and 6 rebounds and Ray Allen who had a record eight 3-pointers in game 2 and then went 0 for 13 from the field in game 3, got 12 points but shot 4-for-11 including 0-for-4 from beyond the 3-point line. Pau Gasol had 21 points for L.A.

The Celtics bench outscored the Laker's 36-18 and that's considering Lamar Odom and his 10 points as bench contribution. In fact the Lakers forward stayed on the floor for 39 minutes, obliged by Andrew Bynum's absence. Bynum started the game but his knee didn't allow him to play much (12 minutes) forcing Gasol to move to the center position most of the time, which brought back bad memories from 2008. The Celtics also outrebounded the Lakers 41-34 and, in which has already became a trend on these Finals, the team who wins on the boards wins the game.