Flashback to the ‘60s a bummer

Hello, ignominy, their old friend.

It turned out the Lakers and Celtics weren’t reliving any of their Finals in the 1980s, after all. This one is right out of the ‘60s, when it wasn’t a matter of what would go wrong for the Lakers but when and how horrific it would be.

Thursday night’s Game 4 just went up there with Frank Selvy’s wide-open miss, Don Nelson’s shot that bounced off the back rim and dropped back in and the balloons in the rafters for the Game 7 celebration the Lakers never got to hold.

After a torpid start in the first three games, the Lakers awoke as if from the dead, taking a 24-point lead, then died all over again, blowing it all and falling, 97-91.

Even the ‘60s Lakers, who lost six Finals to the Celtics, never had a game like that and no other NBA team may have either.

The league doesn’t have play-by-play accounts of games before 1971, but this was the biggest lead any team has blown in the Finals since.

Also, it was the biggest halftime lead (58-40) any team had blown in the Finals.

So much for the Lakers’ advantages of youth and depth.

The older Celtics had dragged themselves through Tuesday’s Game 3 loss, suffering the effects of changing coasts in a fast turnaround.

Afterward, ABC’s locker room camera caught Celtics Coach Doc Rivers pleading with his players, who were allowed to bring their wives on this trip, to get their rest.

“We’re better than them and we’ll show that on the next game on Thursday, so get your rest,” Rivers said.

“I’m telling you, guys, get your rest. Get your rest. You’ve got wives and stuff, go out to dinner. I think it’s great that they’re here; you can do that, but get your rest. I mean, tonight too, because it’ll hurt you the following night. Get your rest tonight, get your rest tomorrow night.”

Who knows, maybe they over-rested.

For the first time in the series, the Lakers cracked the Celtics’ defense wide open in the first half, soaring into a 24-point lead with the visitors looking like roadkill.

The Lakers still led, 70-50, with 6:03 left in the third quarter, at which point Rivers went small, put in more shooters with James Posey and Eddie House and saw his team close the quarter with a 21-3 run.

After that, the Celtics turned up the heat and the Lakers wilted.

“One of the things I was concerned about was that Kobe [Bryant] hadn’t scored a field goal in the first half,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said, adding that the Celtics “knew, hey, he’s going to come out and try to get some scores, so we’re going to have to commit as a team.

“They committed as a team and we didn’t have guys who stepped up and helped out in the second half.”

Sure enough, Bryant, 0 for 4 from the field in the first half, came out looking to score, but Paul Pierce, who had asked Rivers to guard him, held him to six field goals in 15 attempts.

“Paul came to me at halftime and said, ‘I want to guard Kobe. Let me guard him. I’m foul-less. I can commit some fouls, be physical with him,’ ” Rivers said.

“It would take [Bryant] off of the post, so we went with it and it was terrific. . . .

“The whole key was that we just didn’t give up and that comes from them. Nothing I did.”

The Celtics stepped up. The Lakers stepped back.

Kevin Garnett, who had missed 41 of 60 shots from halftime of Game 1 to halftime of Game 4, battled back, scoring 10 points in Thursday night’s second half.

Meanwhile, Lamar Odom went from “confused” -- Jackson’s description -- to fabulous in the first half when he had 15 points and eight rebounds, back to confused in the second half when he had four points and two rebounds.

“We’re not thinking of winning three games,” said Bryant afterward. “We’re thinking of winning Sunday. Take one swing at a time, chop down the tree.”

Thursday night, the Lakers swung and missed, and the only thing that toppled was them.

--

mark.heisler@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

3-1 and done

No team has overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals. Number of times teams went up 3-1 in the Finals and when the series ended:

*--* SERIES RESULT NO. LAST TIME IT HAPPENED Won in five games 14 2004: Detroit def. Lakers, 4-1 Won in six games 12 2000: Lakers def. Indiana, 4-2 Won in seven games 2 1966: Boston def. Lakers, 4-3 Lost in seven games 0 *--*

Source: Associated Press