12:02: Allen fouls Kobe to stop the clock. He's gone, and so is this game. Anyone who really thinks this LA team can win two at the Garden? We see a Game Six where the Celtics don't dig themselves into an early 19-point hole, and this sucker ends Tuesday night. We'll keep our fingers crossed...

12:01: Fisher's free throw makes it a 5-point game. Good thing each team has 14 timeouts, there was a chance we'd have been back home by 2:00 otherwise.

11:55: Kobe gets a steal and a dunk. Four point LA lead with less than a minute. Rats.

11:53: Odom commits a dumb foul, flirts with a T, and Pierce calmly knocks down two to cut the lead in half. Looks like we picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

11:51: LA fans are still showing their basketball savvy by once again reminding Kobe he won the MVP Award. Unfortunately, the C's just wasted a trip downcourt and time is growing short.

11:49: KG stops Gasol without fouling, gets the rebound and gets to the line on a bump. What's Spanish for "disappear down the stretch"?

11:47: Pierce charges down the middle and almost gets the and-1. LA really doesn't excel at collapsing into the paint on defense, do they?

11:40: Garnett just picked up his fifth foul. And...so did Pierce. Interesting that Mike Breen just read a promo for Game Six without ever once uttering the words "if necessary". Just saying.

11:38: Tie game. Well, until Gasol backs down KG for two. Arrrgh. It's been really quiet in the Staples Center for the last few minutes.

11:32: Pierce hits the deck and kicks it out to Posey, who shows off his giant Lamars once again and buries a three. And once again, no Laker seems able or willing to stop the run.

11:31: If you watch "Wipeout", we can't be friends anymore. It's just that simple. A 9-2 C's run, and it's 90-83.

11:29: Cassell's on fire; good thing, because KG still refuses to challenge Gasol in the paint.

11:27: Sam! He just worked Farmar for a three-point play. And because he's a good American, he didn't have to fling himself to the floor to sell the foul. Nice work, Sam.

11:25: Cassell pulls the ball away from Vujacic; Vujacic, apparently made of papier-mache, flies ten feet in the air. It's going to be really hard to root for the next European that the Celtics sign, we'll say that.

11:24: As much as we hate some of the PA stuff at the Garden, at least they haven't started using the "Hey if we play 'Day-O' everyone will yell 'Day-O' back and won't that be awesome" method of crowd control.

11:22: Vujacic just slapped Posey. Literally slapped him. But the C's can't convert. Nine minutes to go.

11:21: Pierce comes out aggressive after the time out. Good start. Say what you want about Doc, the C's usually come out of time outs with a solid couple of plays.

11:17: Lamar got his wind (or whatever) back and nailed a three. Doc immediately calls timeout, this has "last stand" written all over it for the next three minutes or so. And whoever said we want this series to keep going to end it in Boston obviously has never seen us writhing in pain when those parking attendant commercials come on.

11:15: Lamar Odom looks pained. If you're a professional broadcaster, he "got the wind knocked out of him"; if you're not, he just got kneed somewhere in the vicinity of Li'l Lamar.

11:14: Did Channel 5 just lead off a commercial for interactive radar maps with "WEATHER! UNDER YOUR CONTROL!"?!? Sweet!

11:10: So much for the blow-off-the-doors 3rd quarter. LA's been playing with a lot more aggressiveness and sense of urgency than we expected, honestly. 9-point Laker lead after three.

11:07: We know KG knows what he's doing, and what he's been doing for years. But watching him turn down the opportunity to drive on Gasol again and again and again is frustrating and bewildering.

11:03: Wow, the mummy wearing the Sam Cassell jersey just scored. And the Lakers have just made a couple really dopey turnovers. Why aren't we leading?

10:57: Celebrity roundup: Sylvester Stallone looks like he's been on cleanup duty on Three Mile Island. Paula Abdul, for a change, looks like she has no idea what's going on. Matt Damon is wearing a Celtics cap, so of course he's a "big fan" even though we've never seen him at the Garden for the last eight years. And David Spade somehow is able to afford tickets. LA is a weird place.

10:53: Derek Fisher hits two and a foul; the C's turn it over and Radmanovic hits a three to make sure he's not overlooked in the Laker Frontrunning Derby,

10:47: Pierce blows by two European "defenders" to score his 24th point. Every time Pierce blinks right now, the NBA trophy appears in his eyeballs like a Tex Avery cartoon character seeing dollar signs.

10:45: Kobe has three fouls. Doc sticks to his strict policy of not going after and challenging the dangerous player in foul trouble. We've turned around a lot on Doc lately, but not completely.

10:43:...and Kobe gets called for his third, on a charge on Pierce. Gasol scores (possibly his first 2nd-half points of the series) and we're tied at 62.

10:41: Kobe elbows PJ Brown, shoots, feels a puff of air on his arm, and gets to the line. Making the call: Dick Bavetta, who you may remember was one of the refs in the highly suspicious 2002 LA-Sacramento game.

10:39: KG is getting rebounds. Rondo just Rondo'd Radmanovic. Ray ties it with a three. At some point in the next nine minutes, as Sean Grande pointed out after Game Four, the Lakers will have to decide if they really want to take a redeye flight after this game is over.

10:34: Doc, at halftime: "Why did we start scoring in the second quarter?" The Celtics, in unison: "Because we made stops." If the Celtics play a Celtic third quarter, this sucker's over. Mark it, dude.

10:27: ABC shows remarkable journalistic ethics by having ABC reporter Bill Walton interviewing Laker Luke Walton. Yes, we know it's a halftime puff piece, but still.

10:14: Pierce nails a three and Kobe flings one up to end the half with LA clinging to a 55-52 lead. Three points, with Rondo almost useless and Kevin Garnett spending most of the half in Dick Bavetta's trunk? We'll take it! Back in a bit.

10:08: Pierce, who we think has gone the distance so far, looks very very tired. But at least he hit the rim, unlike Jordan Farmar. Tony Allen, improbably, is carrying the team right now. Well, as soon as we typed that, Ray hit a 3. And so did Farmar. We'll shut up now. Not really.

10:02: If you ever wonder how Spain went from Masters of the Western Hemisphere and Rulers of the Sea to the second-rate power they are today, just watch Gasol trying to hold on to that rebound. The Lakers find the basket, though, and stop the run, 45-39, LA.

9:56: 15-0 run by the Celtics. Kobe's starting to get the "I'm going to scream and yell and slap my teammates in the locker room at halftime" look. Odom and Vujacic are in the middle of a mighty struggle to claim the title of Biggest Frontrunner in the League.

9:53: KG's back in the game for 17 seconds before Kenny Mauer hits him with his third foul. Pau Gasol, who seems like a big sissy, flails the arms to make sure the ref sees it. At the other end, PJ clears out a ton of room for Pierce to drive and score.

9:50: Tony Allen! He comes off a Vujacic bump and grind to hit a basket. At the other end, Ronny Turiaf (Turiaf = French for "incredible stiff") commits an offensive foul so egregious that even Dick Bavetta sees it. It's down to nine.

9:46: Pierce and Tony Allen make a couple aggressive plays, and the lead's down to 43-32. Dad is pining for Big Baby to come in the game. We'll buy that.

9:42: Chris Mihm's in for them. Tony Allen's in for us. God help us, can Brian Scalabrine be far behind?

9:40: Pierce somehow scores 2 after being bounced around like he's in a pinball machine. Dick Bavetta (who, you may remember, is being investigated for crooked refereeing in critical games) watches the whole thing and doesn't see a foul.

9:35: In honor of Father's Day, we're going to go to Dad for first quarter analysis. "Dear Doc, did you see what happened in Game Four? Do you remember any of it? This is over."

9:32: Vujacic for a steal and a dunk. We were kind of hoping that Game Four would have broken his brain, and he'd be homeless and wandering the streets of Santa Monica already. We also finally just realized how much Vujacic reminds us of Jesus from The Big Lebowski. 8 year olds, Dude.

9:30: We just went to snoop on the Boston.com live blog and it froze our computer. So stay here with us. KG hits two in a row, so of course, he gets rung up for his second foul. David Stern twirls his mustache.

9:24: The Laker crowd, showing they've been paying attention, chants "MVP" with Kobe on the line. Jeff Van Gundy, speaking for all America says, "Do they really have to do that now that he's already won the award?"

9:22: Kobe hits another three, after some really crisp Laker passing. Pau Gasol fires one off the side of the rim, so at least Kobe knows he can count on his teammates. Ray answers with a 3. 24-15.

9:19: Pierce, on the Game 4 first quarter: "I look up at the score, and thinking how did this happen?" Well, Paul, your team's doing a hell of a job recreating it in every possible way. Just sayin'. PJ Brown and Eddie House are in after the timeout.

9:16: Dear Celtics: When you're being outhustled, out-aggressived, and out-interiored by Pau Gasol, maybe it's time to rethink your strategy. It's 15-5, and we still haven't taken a decent shot.

9:14: rondo (verb): To drive down the middle of the lane, be wide open for a layup, then kick it back to Pierce for a missed three. We just got Rondo'd.

9:12: The C's are on the board, after a sweet spin-pass from Ray to KG. 10-4 LA on a Kobe jumper, which KG answers from the corner. Perk, meanwhile, looks pretty good in a suit.

9:11 Pierce misses, and Fisher crashes into the cameraman on the other end (KG foul). It's 5-0 LA, but at least Kobe's missed two 3's in a row.

9:09: The Celtics fiddle and diddle (thanks, Johnny Most) for 23 seconds before Rondo has to fling one up. There may have been some elbows and shoving, but let's remember, the best-case scenario with Bavetta involves cataracts. That's the best case.

9:07: The refs include Dick Bavetta, who's been questioned this week in a scandal involving fixed refereeing of playoff games. The NBA: Where We Don't Even Pretend Anymore happens.

9:05: Dear ABC: Do you realize that the more commercials we see for "The Mole", "Wipeout" and that Japanese game-show thing we see, the less likely we are to ever turn to ABC again? Then again, we actually read books, so we're not in the 99.4% demographic these shows are after.

9:03: Doc's telling the team to play every minute like it's their last minute. Let's hope that includes the first half...

9:01: It's hard to understand why they do the intros, then wait five minutes for the game to start. If Kevin Garnett were to up and murder someone, it would happen in these five minutes. Hmmm...where is Vujacic right now?

8:59: The Laker introductions end with "and the head coach, Hall of Famer Phil Jackson", while the camera focuses on a stoic Phil posing for Mount Rushmore.

8:55: Ashanti just finished the National Anthem by making "brave" a 13-syllable word. Leon Powe's starting!!!!

8:50 PM: The live blog is on! We're back at Auxiliary Bostonist Sports LiveBlog Headquarters in Central MA, where we watched the Red Sox win the World Series, and we're told we watched some football game in February, though the details are hazy. We already know Kendrick Perkins is out for the game, and we know Phil and Kobe think the series isn't over yet. We also saw Doc Rivers get super emotional when someone asked him about what it would mean to win on Father's Day when his dad died this season. So you'd basically have to be a complete unfeeling schmuck to root for the Lakers.