Kevin Garnett hit the first of the game, a low move over Pau Gasol in the left block. The bucket was decidedly not a jumper, as Gasol controversially categorized his game following Game 1.

After hearing about how the Lakers dominated the battle of the paint and how Garnett looks done, the Celtics appeared initially determined to make a statement that neither will be true over the course of the remaining six games.

But Garnett got into foul trouble and then, quite simply, Ray Allen happened.

Allen's minutes were limited in Game 1 due to foul, but you could see in the few glimpses of his 12 points during Thursday's game that his offensive matchup would be the one where the Celtics would have the biggest advantage. If Allen is covered by Derek Fisher, he can outrun him around all of those screens and Kobe Bryant's defense is negated by playing that style and he also gets winded for the offensive end. Looking at the bench players, Allen is the type of scorer that will move without the ball in such a way where Shannon Brown will be completely spun around.

Allen ended the first half with 27 points on 7-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

After the game, Allen talked about how he saw glimpses of what he ended up doing in Game 2 during the first few mintues of Game 1.

"Getting into that game, it was a competitive game, it was tough fought and (the Lakers) played great," said Allen. "Physically I felt great. I was getting to the spots I needed to, just never really got in a great rhythm."

But in spite of that performance and a languish offensive performance for the Lakers, the Celtics headed into haltime up by only six due to a turnover in the backcourt just before the final buzzer that led to a Kobe three-pointer.

Allen would score only five more points in the second half, Kevin Garnett scored a total of six points on 2-for-5 shooting an Paul Pierce went 2-for-11 from the field, but the Celtics still found a way to win 103-94.

Nate Robinson scored seven of Boston's 31 fourth quarter points, Glen Davis had a couple of buckets and Rajon Rondo finished with an all over the court impacting the game triple-double.

As much as the 2008 Celtics were completely a co-op of talent, this year's club is even more diverse in who can win a game for them. Garnett was arguably the MVP of the 2008 regular season, but he clearly isn't that guy right now and the Celtics have won games on the back of several different guys during these playoffs. Teams like that are more difficult to game plan for because they may not have a dependable superstar, but they have enough dependable professionals where all it takes is one of them to have a superstar night for them to win.

Most title teams have had one of the best four or five players in the NBA in that single season, but the Celtics do not have that luxury. They are attempting to join the 2004 Pistons, along with the 1989 and 1990 Pistons in that rarefied title club.

In this Game 2, Allen and Rondo each had superstar nights while Kobe was maintained and restrained by his own foul trouble. The Lakers did get a combined 46 points (13-20 from the floor, 20-25 from the line) and 13 blocks from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but the inability to get anything from Ron Artest (1-for-10), Lamar Odom (3 points, five boards, 1 assist in 15 foul-ridden minutes) and Fisher (2-for-8) made winning Game 2 unfeasible.

The Lakers shot 41 total free throws and teams very rarely lose games when they have that type of draw rate, but the Celtics went from being down 48-30 on points in the paint in Game 1 to holding a 36-26 advantage.

Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cr_reina.