Bryant's night: Seething and disbelieving

Late in the third quarter, with the Lakers trailing by 22 points, Kobe Bryant took a seat on the bench and seethed.

You could see disbelief, frustration, and embarrassment as he glared at the court. He stared straight ahead with familiar intensity. You could almost read his mind. The Lakers would not get blown out. Not on his watch. Fans at TD Banknorth Garden were celebrating too early.

In the fourth quarter, Bryant led a Lakers comeback, shouting at his teammates to play better in every huddle.

It wasn't eloquent. But it was effective.

When asked what he told the team during the timeouts, Bryant said, "Get our beep in gear. Play beep harder. A bunch of other beeps. It was beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Eddie Murphy 'Raw' times 10.

"You just keep playing. You don't know what's going to happen . . . It was about slicing [the Celtics lead] and getting it to single digits and applying more and more pressure," he added. "That's what we did. I think they learned a lot tonight because we're a young team and I think that shows you're never really out of a game. Being down 24, if you find yourself down 8 or 10, that's not something that should discourage you."

But moments before the Celtics defeated the Lakers, 108-102, the frustration returned. As Sasha Vujacic launched a 3-pointer from the left wing with 14 seconds remaining with a chance to cut the deficit to 1 point, there was a frustrated Bryant on right wing. He punched his fist into his hand, essentially telling his teammates he wanted the ball. Pierce blocked Vujacic's shot and, effectively, closed the book on the Lakers. On a night where the Lakers had trouble getting to the foul line, it was only fitting the Celtics sealed the victory with a pair of free throws.

"It was tough to get into a groove, with them getting to the free throw line so much," said the Lakers' Luke Walton.

Lamar Odom denied any disappointment with the Lakers performance.

"We're not frustrated," he said. "We know we can't let it get to a 20-point lead. I think if the game is a two-possession game the whole game, you guys probably wouldn't have brought it up."

But non-calls appeared to bother Bryant the most. It was not uncommon to see Bryant yapping or glaring at the referees when he didn't get to the line. Bryant picked up a technical foul with 8:59 remaining in the third and the Lakers trailing by 13 points.

"We just had to make a stand a little bit," Bryant said of refocusing after the technical. "Guys were getting hit going to the basket and not always being called. We've got to make a stand, but at the same time, you've still got to play. You can't lose your aggressiveness. You've still got to go through it and do your best."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson tried to take a positive spin on the loss, focusing on the fourth-quarter comeback, rather than dwelling on any feelings of frustration.

"We just learned about momentum," said Jackson. "We started turning the corner a little bit in the fourth quarter, but they'd come back, hit a three, something would happen," said Jackson. "I just kept saying, 'We'll find a moment in this game to come back and play it. We just want this game to last long enough to carry it out.' But it didn't. So, we'll learn some lessons from that and we'll learn some lessons from what we have to do offensively to control the game and control the pace of the game."

And by controlling the pace of the game, the Lakers can possibly prevent frustration from creeping into the equation.