We, to be honest, had the exact opposite of high hopes for last night's game. The Lakers were going to be in front of their home crowd, energized, with the referees desperate to be on their side to avoid another four-hankie Phil Jackson press conference. And if you'd told us before the game that Paul Pierce would be a train wreck, KG would be way off his shot, and Rondo would get hurt, we'd assume about a 114-91 blowout.

And somehow, the Celtics were in it till the last minute, and lost only 87-81. If you're a Celtics fan, you have to be a little impressed that it was that close, when the C's really couldn't have played a lot worse. Not that the Lakers played great. Kobe had a very Kobelike game, scoring 36 easy points (11-18 from the free throw line, Phil, does that meet your needs?), and Sasha Vujacic killed the C's off the bench from long range. Those are the only Lakers worth mentioning. Pau Gasol was bad, Lamar Odom was worse, Vladimir Radmanovic may not even have been in the building. But the two were enough.

As for the C's, the less said about their "offensive" "effort", the better. Ray Allen far and away led the team with 25. KG had one hot stretch, but was mostly settling for long shots and not hitting them. Paul Pierce...ye gads. He may never have had a worse night. Off the bench, James Posey was adequate, and Eddie House looked like a guy with a month's worth of rust on him. And he really only got minutes because Rondo rolled his ankle (he looked ready to come back in, and says he's OK). All in all, it was a pretty horrendous game for the Green. And yet, they were in it all the way.

The NBA got a little jolt before the game, when disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy filed a legal document saying that the league fixed playoff games in years past. The Lakers-Kings playoff game in 2002, which everyone but Phil Jackson thought stunk to high heaven, was strongly alluded to. David Stern and the league call these accusations a desperate act by a desperate man. This could get interesting.

ESPN went around Los Angeles to find out how much people hate the Celtics. Hard to believe Dyan Cannon and George Lopez were available to talk to someone with a notebook and a camera. No quotes from Jack Nicholson, though we were glad to see him in his usual courtside seat next to his best friend Bernie Lomax.

The Red Sox...well, it's not often lately we get to use "train wreck" twice in one column, but we've been left with no choice. JD Drew (up to .945 for June) and Manny hit back-to-back homers to give Josh Beckett a 6-4 lead. But the Orioles slapped Hideki Okajima around in the seventh (three runs in 1/3 of an inning for Oki), and padded their lead against Craig Hansen in the ninth for the 10-6 win. Our bullpen officially has issues. Bartolo Colon tries to rebound from his first Sox loss tonight against Baltimore's Garrett Olson.

Photo by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press. Our friend David contributed to this post with the Bernie Lomax joke.