Celtics Rally to Overcome 24 Point Deficit

BOSTON 97, LA LAKERS 91

Boston Leads Series, 3-1

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Boston Celtics showed the Los Angeles Lakers what a real comeback is all about. Paul Pierce scored 20 points as the Celtics used one of the most remarkable turnarounds in league history to come away with a 97-91 victory over the Lakers in Game Four of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.

Kevin Garnett added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Boston, which climbed out of a 24-point, first-quarter hole to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. No team in Finals history has recovered from such a deficit, making the Celtics an odds-on favorite to hoist its NBA-best 17th championship trophy. Game Five is here on Sunday.

To get to this point, Boston erased the largest first-quarter (21) and halftime (18) deficits in Finals history in the shot-clock era. While it took 57 points of offense in the second half, Boston won the game with inspired defense down the stretch. The Lakers made it a one-possession game three times within the final 1:30 but could not come up with a critical defensive stop. James Posey hit a 3-pointer, Pierce nailed two free throws and Ray Allen put in a driving layup for the Celtics during that decisive span. Allen blew past Lakers reserve guard Sasha Vujacic, took an easy path to the rim and banked in a lefthanded layup to make it 96-91 with 16.4 seconds left and effectively seal the win.