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It has been an emotional week for Allen, whose 17-month-old child was just diagnosed with diabetes. The veteran guard talked about his family situation shortly after scoring 26 points to lead the Celtics to their 17th NBA title with a 131-92 rout of the Lakers last night.

On Saturday, Tiger put on a display of golf dramatics unmatched in championship history. In the span of six holes he made a hundred feet of eagle putts, pitched in from greenside rough, and hit several of the crookest drives this side of Phil Mickelson. He did all this on a gimpy left leg that has garnered only slightly less attention than Barack Obama. Using his club as a cane, pain evident on his face, he somehow charged from five strokes back into a one-shot lead. If Saturday were Sunday, the 2008 U.S. Open would be on the short list of greatest sporting events ever.

But Saturday isn’t Sunday.

When Willis Reed limped out to the Madison Square Garden floor to lead the New York Knicks in the 1970 NBA Finals, he knew it was the last game of the season. When Kirk Gibson dragged his body off the trainer’s table and hobbled to home plate before hitting his game-winning home run in 1987, it was his only at-bat of that World Series. When Michael Jordan scored 38 points against the Utah Jazz while fighting nausea and dehydration from the flu, he knew he’d have a day off before the 1997 Finals continued.

Tiger Woods knew, as he iced his post-operative knee on Saturday night, that he’d have to do it all over again, walking four-plus miles, using that sore leg to brace himself against the force of his 125-mph swing.

The round unfolded like a horror film whose director puts his most gruesome imagery in the first few moments, so the audience would be filled with dread and anticipation at every turn thereafter. Tiger opened with a drive wildly left, his discomfort obvious as he walked off the tee. His second shot from a birds-nest lie stayed in the long grass amidst the gallery, his third hit a tree and came down in the rough, his fourth failed to reach the green – was this really Tiger Woods? We’ve seen him escape from so many impossible positions through the years. Had arthroscopic kryptonite turned Tiger Woods into one of us?

His double-bogey on 1 was followed by a drive into the right rough on 2, after which he doubled over in pain. His subsequent bogey was bad, and his body language was worse. On the tees, he seemed to be looking for some shot he could hit without wincing. An anguished cry followed one effort. If it were a boxing match, and you were his trainer, you’d have thought about throwing in the towel for his own protection.

What do you do when you’re Tiger Woods on a day when you’re not Tiger Woods?

Yes, it’s golf, not mortal combat. The word “courage” should be saved for those who face peril in the real world, not in the shadow play of sports. Even in the golfing realm, this was not quite Ben Hogan at Merion in 1950, playing 36 holes in a single day with a body almost completely shattered by a car crash a year earlier. Nonetheless, anyone watching had to feel a bit of sickness in the pit of his stomach.

As the round progressed, Tiger remained unreliable off the tee, but found enough of his game to hit the kind of recovery shots we’re used to seeing. (Asked about the apparent improvement through the day, he said, “Did it get better? No. I took some things to relieve that, so I feel better now.”) He birdied 9 and 11 to take the lead, but gave back those strokes with a shockingly bad second shot into the hazard on 13 and a dreadful drive on 15. Meanwhile, Rocco Mediate was cruising along in the group ahead, chatting with the galleries, smiling, laughing, loving the moment and never veering more than one shot from par for the day.

On the 18th tee, Tiger knew he needed a birdie to tie and an eagle to win. We knew, and he knew, that putting a drive in the fairway would be challenge enough on this day. He pulled it left into a bunker, squirted his second shot into the right rough, and hit a 60-degree wedge to 14 feet. The U.S. Open title would come down to one final stroke: miss it and it’s over, make it and he’s in an 18-hole playoff on Monday when he’ll have to drag that sore knee around the course one more time.

Of course he made it. He’s Tiger Woods.

LOS ANGELES - No team in NBA playoff history has overcome an 0-3 deficit. Los Angeles superstar Kobe Bryant made sure the Lakers won’t have to overcome that hurdle. Bryant poured in a game-high 36 points in leading the Lakers past Boston 87-81 in game three of the NBA Finals. That cuts Boston’s lead to 2-to-1 with the home team winning every game so far.

Sasha Vujacic gave the Lakers a big lift off the bench with 20 points. Pau Gasol added 9 points and 12 rebounds. Ray Allen led Boston with 25. Kevin Garnett added 13 points and 12 boards. Paul Pierce, who had been huge for Boston in its opening two wins, had a rough night. Pierce shot 2-for-12 and scored just six points.

After a day off, the series resumes Thursday night with game four in Los Angeles. The Lakers have not lost at home since March 29th.

BOSTON - This is not how the Boston Celtics planned to get back to the NBA finals. The league’s luckiest franchise saw its luck run out — again — in the draft lottery last year, coming up with the worst possible pick and no shot at the megastars slotted 1-2. What the Celtics couldn’t know at the time was that it was the best thing that could have happened.

The NBA’s most decorated franchise, the Celtics were once synonymous with success — winning 16 championships from 1957 to ‘86. But twice since their last title they’ve dropped to the bottom of the standings in hopes of landing a big lottery prize, only to see the chances go against them.

With two potential franchise players at the top of last year’s draft, Greg Odenand Kevin Durant, the Celtics seemed in good position to pick up a key part of their turnaround. But three teams jumped over them in the lottery, and they wound up with the No. 5 selection.

“It was the worst possible pick we could have gotten, and it felt like the worst possible thing,” said managing partner Wyc Grousbeck, who was in the sealed-off room where the lots were drawn and found out about an hour before the TV audience that the Celtics had dropped to the fifth spot.

“I spent 50-55 minutes going, ‘This is really terrible. I feel really badly for all the Boston fans who were about to find out.’ I just felt really unlucky,” he said. “There was no joy in Mudville.”

Then came Plan B. And C.

Ainge tried to trade the No. 5 pick and developing big man Al Jefferson for Garnett, but Garnett didn’t want to come to a losing team and the Celtics didn’t want him unless he’d agree to an extension. So Ainge sent the first-round pick — which, other than Paul Pierce, was his most valuable commodity — to Seattle in a package for Allen.

Suddenly, Garnett was interested. Ainge picked him up from the Timberwolves in an unprecedented 7-for-1 deal and the Celtics were on their way to 66 wins — the biggest turnaround in NBA history — and a return to the finals against their archrival.

Pagliuca was at the team’s training facility in Waltham, Mass., watching the lottery on TV when the camera panned around the room and showed Grousbeck, who wore a green pinstriped suit he had made for the occasion as well as a frown he tailored himself.

“Wyc looked like he had been shot, so we knew we didn’t have the first pick,” Pagliuca said. “We spent a lot of time hoping for the first draft pick, but we knew there would be plenty of players available. Garnett was the No. 1 possibility.”

Then came Plan B. And C.

Ainge tried to trade the No. 5 pick and developing big man Al Jefferson for Garnett, but Garnett didn’t want to come to a losing team and the Celtics didn’t want him unless he’d agree to an extension. So Ainge sent the first-round pick — which, other than Paul Pierce, was his most valuable commodity — to Seattle in a package for Allen.

Suddenly, Garnett was interested. Ainge picked him up from the Timberwolves in an unprecedented 7-for-1 deal and the Celtics were on their way to 66 wins — the biggest turnaround in NBA history — and a return to the finals against their archrival.

Pagliuca was at the team’s training facility in Waltham, Mass., watching the lottery on TV when the camera panned around the room and showed Grousbeck, who wore a green pinstriped suit he had made for the occasion as well as a frown he tailored himself.

“Wyc looked like he had been shot, so we knew we didn’t have the first pick,” Pagliuca said. “We spent a lot of time hoping for the first draft pick, but we knew there would be plenty of players available. Garnett was the No. 1 possibility.”

The owners are effusive in their praise for Ainge — not just for making big trades, but also for drafting the “chips” that he cashed in for the All-Stars.

Without picks such as Al Jefferson (15th overall), Gerald Green (18th), Delonte West (24th) and Ryan Gomes (20th in the second round), they wouldn’t have been able to acquire Garnett.

“Look at the players he’s drafted, down the line, who are going to be fixtures in the league,” said Irv Grousbeck, Wyc’s father and another member of the ownership group.

Ainge also drafted Rajon Rondo (21st) and Kendrick Perkins (27th), non-lottery players who fill out the starting five of the Eastern Conference champions. Leon Powe and Glen “Big Baby” Davis were second-rounders who’ve contributed off the bench this season.

“Our strategy was to try to hit the longball, to win a championship, not to sign some midlevel players and get into the playoffs. We had to have the patience to build those chips up,” Pagliuca said. “We recognized that time was an asset for us.

“We were younger. It would have taken a little longer, but I think we would have been a contender,” Pagliuca said. “The second we got Garnett, we felt there was a legitimate possibility we could contend.”

And so did other players in the league.

Once Allen and Garnett signed on, came out of the woodwork hoping to join the team. Eddie House, James Posey, Scot Pollard, Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown all said they were eager to join a winner.

“I don’t want to make it seem like this was our master plan. But our strategy was to build assets and remain opportunistic — be looking for what you can do and build, build, build,” Irv Grousbeck said. “If you do nothing else over time, you’ll build a good team.

“We got lucky in a sense, but we planned to be able to put together a good team,” he said. “If we had kept building, it would have taken longer.”