The Celtics are one win from claiming their 17th NBA championship in history.


June 13, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

The Celtics are one win from claiming their 17th NBA championship in history.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In their comeback season, the Celtics saved the biggest one of all for the NBA finals.

Boston rallied from a 24-point deficit and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 97-91 Thursday night to take a commanding 3-1 lead in this history-rich series and move within one victory of a 17th championship that seemed impossible a year ago.

A rivalry between the league’s two most storied franchises — with some of the game’s biggest names and biggest moments — now has its biggest rally.

No team had ever overcome more than a 15-point deficit in the first quarter, and although the league doesn’t have a record for the largest rally in a finals game, the Celtics staged one that will forever be remembered in the annals of Celtics-Lakers lore.

Boston center Kendrick Perkins left in the third quarter with a left shoulder strain.

Perkins left the game with 9:35 left in the third after banging into Lakers forward Lamar Odom in the lane. Perkins walked off clutching his shoulder and was escorted to the locker room.

Perkins returned to the bench, and the team said he may return.

Perkins had two points and one rebound in 13 minutes, playing much of the game in foul trouble.

Odom hit his first seven shots from the field and scored 15 points as the Lakers took a 58-40 halftime lead.

The Lakers led by a finals-record 21 points after the first quarter.

Odom scored 13 points in the first quarter to help Los Angeles open the 35-14 lead — the biggest first-quarter lead in the history of the NBA finals.

Early in the first quarter, minutes after commissioner David Stern held a news conference to deny allegations from former referee Tim Donaghy that officials manipulate games, Celtics coach Doc Rivers was whistled for a technical for complaining about consecutive non-calls.

Derek Fisher missed the free throw, but the Lakers still went ahead 9-2. They led 16-6 after six minutes when Kevin Garnett left the game with two fouls; point guard Rajon Rondo, who missed practice on Wednesday with a bone bruise in his left ankle, followed him to the bench and the Lakers quickly made it a 19-point lead.