Celtics

Walton set precedent Dom Amore Hartford Courant There probably were those who chuckled or rolled their eyes when the Celtics picked up Bill Walton for a magical mystery tour in the mid-1980s. A once-great center, no longer a star, no longer able to stand up to the rigors of full-time play, just what did Red Auerbach think he was doing when he signed "Big Red"? You know the rest. Walton knew how to win, and knew how to tailor his remaining skills to the needs of a team that was already solid, and chemistry paid off in a championship.

A person with knowledge of the negotiations says the Celtics are making progress on a deal that would bring Shaquille O'Neal to Boston. Earlier Tuesday, the four-time NBA champion said he will be in the league next season and would rather retire than play internationally. The 38-year-old O'Neal spent last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has struggled to find a contract from a team that can guarantee him playing time, enough money and a chance for one more championship.

All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki notified the Mavericks he is opting out of the final season and $21.5 million on his existing contract. Mavericks President Donnie Nelson already has booked a flight that will have him in Germany on Thursday, when free agency begins, to show Nowitzki how sincere the club is about keeping its all-time leading scorer and rebounder. The Mavs had been discussing an extension, but it would've been for three years. He can get four as a free agent. •Sources close to the situation told ESPN.

Not since Michael Jordan's final championship has an NBA game drawn a bigger audience than last week's seventh game of the Lakers-Celtics series. The Nielsen Co. said Tuesday that 28.2 million people watched Kobe Bryant's Lakers win their second straight NBA Finals. Except for the Olympics, Nielsen said Thursday's game was the most-watched show on network TV in the summer since the finale of the first "Survivor" season in August 2000. •Lakers center Andrew Bynum's injured right knee has been drained for the third time in recent weeks, and he will have surgery next month.

LOS ANGELES — Release the balloons. Ah, better make that purple-and-gold confetti. In a game featuring two very tired teams, the Lakers exorcised the ghosts of past failures by winning the NBA championship Thursday over the Celtics 83-79. The Lakers had to rally midway through the fourth quarter to make it happen and it took some key free throws by Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant to wrap it up. The Celtics were within two with 13 seconds to play. Sasha Vujacic was sent to the line and made both with 11.7 seconds left, giving the Lakers a four-point lead and the victory.

LOS ANGELES — It'll be a memorable night for the Lakers, for better or worse. If they beat the Celtics Thursday at the Staples Center, Kobe Bryant collects a fifth championship ring, tying Magic Johnson and moving within one of Michael Jordan. The Lakers' 73rd win of the season would earn a 16th championship trophy, one fewer than Boston, and take some sting out of their painful Finals loss two years ago to the Celtics. If Pau Gasol can dominate down low without Kendrick Perkins there to clog the lane, coach Phil Jackson can pick up an 11th championship and something else he has never done — a Game 7 victory in the NBA Finals.

BOSTON — Isn't this the way it's supposed to happen? The defending NBA champions with their superstar guard heading home for two elimination games. Or the underdog team looking to pull off the ultimate trifecta of upsetting two No. 1 seeds and one No. 2 to return the championship banner to its parquet home for the second time in three years. Such are the things that big TV ratings are made of. The Celtics wove those storylines to reality Sunday with a 92-86 victory over the Lakers to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

BOSTON — Reinvention, thy name is Celtics. Everything old is new again. New Perk (Kendrick Perkins) new KG (Kevin Garnett), new Big Baby (Glen Davis) and new Sheed (Rasheed Wallace). OK, not so fast. Let's scratch that last one — that would be getting a little carried away on the so-called rapid road to maturity. First came KG, who seemingly has reversed the clock after a miserable showing in Game 1, abruptly, turning his fortunes around by Game 2. The Finals are tied 2-2 with Game 5 Sunday in Boston.

BOSTON — It's the best of times and the worst of times, one more time. If the Lakers-Celtics wars of the 1980s seem as far removed as the Pleistocene Era, the teams are once more at each others' throats as if it's the last time, which it may be. In the salary cap era, it's hard to get any two teams to the NBA Finals. It does help if one has Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. It's not clear what the odds are with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, ages 34, 34 and 32, respectively.

BOSTON — The Lakers were dominant down low, the Celtics unable to stop Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, when good fortune smiled upon the Celtics as a most unusual event took place, something called the start of the fourth quarter. Gasol had one shot, Bynum had two over the final 12 minutes, and the Celtics evened up the NBA Finals with a 103-94 victory in Game 2 on Sunday. Gasol had 25 points but only one in the fourth quarter, and Bynum had 21 in the game, four in the fourth quarter, part of the reason the Lakers headed to Boston in a deadlocked series that resumes Tuesday with Game 3 at certain-to-be-raucous TD Garden.