Celtics have kept lid on Lakers' Kobe Bryant

BOSTON -- Somewhere between making history and becoming history -- with the Lakers still a lot closer to the latter -- they're back to answer the question:

Was this trip necessary?

Of course, the Celtics were coming home anyway and if the Lakers are a longshot to win two games here -- or even to force a second game here -- it's the only shot they've got.

Also, nothing in the NBA Finals has gone the way anyone thought it would yet.

With the Celtics wiping out a 24-point deficit in Game 4 and erasing 19- and 14-point deficits in Game 5, the NBA came that close to seeing its Nirvana Matchup end that fast.

Going into Game 5, TV ratings were up significantly -- since the obligatory comparison was last spring's record-low 6.2 for San Antonio and Cleveland, now known as the Dark Ages.

Unfortunately for the NBA, the Lakers and Celtics were on pace for only the No. 6 rating in the 10 years since the end of the glory days with Michael Jordan's Bulls.

Like the Lakers, the TV numbers rallied in Sunday night's nail-biter, which drew a 12.1 overnight rating.

If that still wasn't spectacular, it blew away the 8.5 overnight rating for the U.S. Open the same day.

The NBA's overall number even beat the 11.4 overnight the Open got in prime time in the East and Midwest for the last two hours of its riveting finish with Tiger Woods rolling in that birdie putt on the last hole to force a playoff.

(Not that NBA people resent Woods, but with the Open on TV in the press room before Game 5, a young league aide walked up, changed the channel and when asked to change it back, announced, "It's a slow game, you can catch up.")

In a fortunate development for the NBA, which needed one, it also got a Game 6 telecast.

Beyond that, it's in the hands of the Lakers and Celtics. If the Lakers started the Finals confident, or cocksure, they should be over that because nothing has worked the way they thought it would.

Coach Phil Jackson has always been able to take something away from opponents -- as he is now with Kobe Bryant dropping off Rajon Rondo to jam up the Celtics' offense.

Rarely has an opponent ever taken away Jackson's star -- as the Celtics are doing with Bryant.

Without double-teaming, the Celtics now bring so much help into Bryant's area, he rarely sees daylight to the basket.

Bryant joked about missing "bunnies" in Game 1 but got only one shot inside 10 feet in that one, and the selection hasn't improved since.

Bryant has been stuck on the perimeter . . . unless he forces the issue, trying to get inside . . . and winds up holding the ball as the offense grinds to a halt and his teammates die on the vine.

In Game 4, he took four shots in the first half, missing all, as his teammates exploded for 58 points, then tried to take over but couldn't.

With fallen spirits to rally after their Game 4 nightmare, Bryant came out firing in Game 5, scoring 15 points in the first quarter but only 10 after that, shooting three for 13 the rest of the way.