The Truth

* After the Lakers’ game four pants-pooping, L.A. can’t do anything in the first half that would truly rattle the Celtics. As long as it’s less than 25 points at the break, Boston knows that they’re within striking distance.

* If Boston comes back to win this game, Paul Pierce has locked up the Finals MVP. He went right into the tooth of the Lakers’ D to score 8 straight points, and 13 points in less than 5 and a half minutes to start the second quarter. It wasn’t as pretty as what Kobe did in the first, but it was just as effective.

* During the first quarter, the e-mails flooding in from other members of the Dime crew were uniformly about how awful some of the Lakers supporting cast looked. Odom stinks and he has no heart. Gasol is getting chewed up by KG. So how did L.A. build a 17-point lead after the first 12-minutes? Kobe stretched out the floor with three-point marksmanship that we haven’t seen from him since his 53-point outburst in the first round against the Nuggets.

* Goodness gracious, Kendrick Perkins‘ watch was unreal. We’re putting the price tag on that piece conservatively at $15,000.

* How can Phil Jackson leave Vlad Radmanovich in the game after giving the single most pathetic defensive effort with Rondo streaking to the basket? He, Odom and Pau have watched Boston’s role players run down long rebounds and loose balls.

* Jeff Van Gundy’s diatribe about Chris Mihm being a “very good” center in this league before getting hurt was promptly and appropriately burst when Mihm air-balled an eight-foot turn-around.

* Tony Allen did to Radmanovich what Ray Allen did to Sasha Vujacic in game four. Mark Jackson called it “the blow-by.”

* When the Lakers snapped out of their 2nd quarter funk, it seemed like Phil figured out a soft spot in Boston’s defense – dump-down passes into Odom. L.O. finished incredibly well around the basket, scoring 9 points in less than three minutes.

* 24 minutes of do-or-die.