LOS ANGELES -- It was one of those "only in Southern California" scenes.

The clock was ticking down on Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Lakers serving up an important series-opening win, and the amped up Staples Center crowd broke into a chant of ..."We want tacos! We want tacos!" mimicking a message flashing on the Jumbotron.

The fans got their tacos and the Celtics got a taste of their own medicine.

You see, Lakers fans in attendance get free tacos whenever the Lakers win and hold an opponent to fewer than 100 points. Last night, the Celtics couldn't even crack 90 in a 102-89 defeat to defensive-minded Los Angeles, which did little to resemble the team the Celtics pushed around two years ago and a lot to resemble the Celtics.

Granting Staples denizens gratis Mexican food could be the least of the Celtics' problems if Los Angeles continues to defend the way it did last night. LA beat the Celtics badly, and worse for Doc Rivers and Co., beat them at their own game, playing a more physical, fierce and court-clogging brand of basketball that started on the defensive end.

"The team that plays defense first is going to win," said Celtics center Kendrick Perkins. "We got enough offense. So do they. The team that plays defense first is going to win this series."

In Game 1, that team was the Lakers.

Los Angeles is a land of copycat trends, styles and ideas, and the Celtics could have sued the Lakers for copyright infringement, so frightening was the way they parroted the Celtics' acclaimed defensive prowess and provided a Purple and Gold parry to every Green thrust back into the game.

There was no better example of the Lakers' commitment to defense than their best player, Kobe Bryant, whom Perkins credited with closing the lane with his help defense. With the Celtics trailing by 11 late in the third quarter, Tony Allen went for a seemingly simple dunk in the lane. He was met at the rim and rejected by Bryant. The Lakers then closed the quarter on an 11-2 run to open up a 20-point lead.

Ball game.

Bryant, who dropped his customary 30 points and more importantly stymied Rajon Rondo, was asked about scoring 100 points on the Celtics and referred back to his team's effort on the other end.

"That's not something that we were hanging our hats on, to score 100 points," said Kobe. "We hang our hats on defending and rebounding."

Where have we heard that before? Pretty much after every Celtics game.

Before the game, Lakers coach Phil Jackson was asked why the Celtics won the last Finals matchup between these two storied franchises and he cited Boston's defensive capabilities, its tenacity and its interior presence on the floor.

Last night those traits belonged to the Lakers. If the Celtics are going to leave LA with a split, they have to reclaim their hoops hallmarks.

While the Celtics' defense was allowing what Rivers called "a parade down the paint" and was getting dominated in the paint by a possessed Pau Gasol (23 points, 14 rebounds), the Lakers limited the Celtics to only 43.3 percent shooting from the floor and 1 of 10 on 3-pointers. The Lakers outrebounded Boston, 42-31, and blocked seven shots.

The Celtics didn't muster a single second-chance point. It was one and done for the boys from Boston, as evidenced by the fact that progeny of the parquet were held to postseason lows in field goals (29) and field goal attempts (67).

LA, meanwhile, shot 48.7 percent from the field and had 16 second-chance points, nearly all as close to the hoop as Lakers uber-fan Jack Nicholson sits to the court.

The Lakers refused to allow Rondo, who had a pedestrian 13-point, 8-assists evening, to get into gear in the open court. They made Kevin Garnett take 16 shots to score 16 points, and they kept Paul Pierce, who tried valiantly, yet in vain, to spark a Celtics comeback in the fourth quarter, from torching them like two years ago when he was Finals MVP. Pierce ended up with 24 points, but 13 of them came in the fourth quarter after LA had already built a 20-point lead.

What the Lakers showed the Celtics last night is that they are the defending NBA champions, emphasis on defending. For all the talk about how well the Celtics' defense has played in reaching the Finals -- and it has been tremendous, just ask LeBron James -- it went unnoticed that Los Angeles was actually holding its opponents to a slightly lesser field goal percentage (43.7 to 43.8 for Boston).

For fans saying nobody plays defense in the wild, wild Western Conference, during the regular season, the Lakers held opponents to 44.6 percent from the field. Celtics foes shot 45.1 percent.

Is there a feeling that the Lakers defense is overlooked and undervalued?

"That's probably accurate," said Ron Artest, who scored 15 points last night and had a huge block on Glen "Big Baby" Davis that led to a Gasol dunk in the fourth quarter, a sequence that was emblematic of the evening.

"I thought at times I heard a lot about Kobe and a lot about the Celtics defense, but I didn't hear a lot about our defense. Hopefully, we can change that."

They already have.