The Celtics found themselves in a pretty interesting situation up five points with around 40 seconds left.  Taking the ball out of bounds, they had four seconds to advance the ball from the backcourt (where they were inbounding it) past the halfcourt line in four seconds.  The Celtics could have advanced the ball with another timeout, but because they only had one left, Doc Rivers decided to draw up a play for the Celtics to quickly advance the basketball.  As Trey Kerby so accurately described it, it was basically the NBA version of the “The Annexation of Puerto Rico.”  However, the Lakers made a few mistakes that aided to the play:

As Kevin Garnett gets the ball to inbound it, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce switch places.  They don’t set a screen, they just switch.  It looks like the first option was Rondo curling towards the basketball (trying to get it to him in a dead sprint so he can just run it across half court) and Paul Pierce was the second option curling out towards the halfcourt line.

This is where the Lakers make their interesting decision.  They decide to switch the play with Ron Artest picking up Rondo and Derek Fisher picking up Paul Pierce.  Now this switch is pretty understandable as the Lakers don’t want to get caught in a trailing position on either one of the Celtics players.  The strange decision comes from Ron Artest here.  He decides to flat out deny Rajon Rondo.  As I said earlier, I think the Celtics were trying to get the ball to Rondo on a sprint, but with that taken away by the switch, you have Rondo going backwards.  Since the Celtics only have 4 seconds to get it across half court, doesn’t it seem like that is where you want to direct the basketball to?

Because Rondo is denied, Kevin Garnett has to go to his second option, Paul Pierce.  Since Derek Fisher is covering Pierce because of the switch, Garnett decides to float the ball over Fisher’s head.

With the ball in the air, Rasheed Wallace now enters the screen.  Fisher had initially put him on the Celtics’ own free throw line to keep things from being too crowded in the backcourt.  He adds to the strangeness of the play by kind of floating towards the basketball, but then sort of backing off as Pierce makes the catch.

What Wallace’s floating does is free up the entire backside for Rajon Rondo who has the edge in speed against the man covering him (Ron Artest).

Pierce makes the pass and Rajon Rondo makes the tough catch.  Rondo is able to finish at the rim and effectively clinch the game for the Celtics.  Here is the play in real time.  The thing to look for is Ron Artest and how his deny of Rondo puts him in a tough position (where he has to chase Rondo down).