BOSTON — The uncertainty was over, the night was resolved, the story was written.

Despite the 90-some seconds still remaining, all that was missing from Game 1 now was the signature.

So Kevin Garnett measured the ball bounding off the rim, rose to meet the moment and slammed home two emphatic, dramatic points.

Perfect. Celtics 98, Lakers 88 captured in one play.

Even more perfect, Garnett's move came unimpeded, no one in this giant, packed arena having a better view than Pau Gasol, the Lakers' center who might as well have been wearing cinder blocks rather than sneakers.

They'll have to play bigger than this, meaner than this, play the body more than this. If the Lakers are going win these NBA Finals, they'll have to flex more than they flinch.

"It was a good experience for us," Kobe Bryant insisted afterward. "A nice little kick in the (rear)."

The expletive was deleted, but the truth wasn't.

There were other issues Thursday — more stagnant, stale offense, 9-of-26 shooting from Bryant, foul problems for Lamar Odom.

Definitely the X's and O's need to be discussed. But the Lakers would be wise to consider the bruises and contusions, too.

"Maybe (we got) too comfortable," Odom said after the Lakers fumbled away a five-point halftime lead. "In this game, they played the right way just a little bit longer than us."

Played the right way, the Celtics did, in terms of execution and exertion.

On a night when the Lakers didn't display enough resolve, it was fitting the game turned on the play of a Celtic who at one point couldn't even pick himself up off the ground.

Paul Pierce injured his knee early in the third quarter, apparently so severely that he had to be carried from the court, hauled away practically in a body bag.

A few minutes later, he returned to Boston's bench, TD Banknorth Garden surging at the very sight.

Soon enough, he was back in the game ... and really goosing the home fans.

Yeah, this game swung in that third quarter, during which Boston went from five points down to four points up. More precisely, it was heavily decided during a 30-second stretch late in the quarter.

Pierce, suddenly recovered enough to decide the most important game yet in this NBA season, hit back-to-back three-pointers, giving the Celtics the lead for good.

Those were telling, but not as much as the two Lakers' possessions that preceded Pierce's shots.

First, Odom drove baseline and, rather than attack the rim with aggression, attempted a soft reverse layup. In position to nearly inhale the ball, Boston's P.J. Brown was content to simply block it instead.

"I thought we got a lot better in the second half," Brown said. "More physical, more aggressive."

Next, running a pick-and-roll, Gasol broke down the lane and took a pass from Bryant. At the basket, he encountered some serious Celtics resistance. Gasol's response? He weakly — and unsuccessfully — flipped the ball off the backboard.

Before turning to retreat on defense, Bryant looked in Gasol's direction with an expression that was more of a growl.

As bad as that moment was, consider a number: zero. That's how many rebounds Gasol had nearly midway through the third quarter.

He would finish with eight, more than any other Laker. But, honestly, if your team is going to succeed at winning a championship, your team's center has to have more of a presence than that.

Now the Lakers, led by the lean Gasol, are more long and wiry than anything. They aren't brutes, and everyone knows it. They aren't going to beat up the Celtics inside, but they'll certainly have to put up their fists more often starting in Game 2.

"I thought we didn't get after the ball on the boards and the opportunities that were there for us,"

Coach Phil Jackson said. "They did a much better job on the boards. That's the difference in the ballgame."

The Celtics, who aren't exactly the New England Patriots either, had 13 more rebounds than the Lakers. The Celtics had 10 offensive rebounds. The Celtics scored more frequently in the lane.

"We don't like to be outrebounded like we were tonight," said Gasol, who just played in his first Finals game.

"There were a lot of loose balls that we didn't get. That's a big difference."

A big difference, in need of an adjustment of equal size.

If the Lakers shoot a little better, maybe it doesn't matter.

If Pierce doesn't have a 15-point third quarter, maybe the Lakers win anyway.

If Bryant goes off for only one small stretch, maybe it's 1-0 in the other direction.

But none of that happened Thursday.

So the Lakers' lack of displayed muscle did matter, mattered more than anything else.