Game 4 the true chance for Celtics

The Boston Celtics losing Game 3 to the Los Angeles Lakers last night wasn't a big surprise.
How Boston lost the game might be the true shock this morning, because the NBA's running joke for a long time is how the league will do anything to boost television revenues, cater to big markets and avoid sweeps in key series. That joke isn't so funny after Tim Donaghy's shocking allegations of game-fixing, a procession of questionable calls he says affected the outcome of the 2002 playoff series between Sacramento and the Lakers. 
We all knew that Los Angeles was going to get to the free throw line at will after Boston took 28 more shots than the Lakers at the stripe in Game 2. We all knew that Kobe Bryant was going to be allowed to be more aggressive on the offensive end, driving into the paint and drawing foul after foul. We all knew that Los Angeles would be more physical on defense and body up on Paul Pierce with no fear of the referee's whistle getting in the way. That's how the NBA works.
But the Celtics still almost won this game. They lost 87-81 on a night when Pierce and Kevin Garnett combined to go 8-for-35 from the field, a huge drop-off from their performances in the first two games. Boston took a lead into the fourth quarter despite Sasha Vujacic coming off the bench for Los Angeles and having the night of his life, something that couldn't have been foreseen. Bryant's supporting cast, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, were still largely missing in action, but Ray Allen was the only Celtics' player to show up with a series-high 25 points.
So forget about the fact that Joey Crawford, a convicted tax cheat and disgraced referee who was suspended for trying to fight Tim Duncan in last year's playoffs, was assigned to work Game 3. Ignore for a minute that Bennett Salvatore, the man who called a dubious offensive foul on Pierce in an earlier round of these playoffs and drew the ire of the Celtics, was on the floor last night. I guess Violette Palmer, who bungled her way through Boston's series against Atlanta in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, wasn't available to round out last night's crew.
Game 4 will be the real chance for the Celtics to break through in Los Angeles. If Boston allows the Lakers to even the series, winning Game 5 against a Los Angeles team desperate to take the series lead back to Boston would be a very difficult challenge. The Celtics need to feel some urgency, take a 3-1 lead in the series and earn themselves two chances to close out the series at the TD Banknorth Garden. Extending this series to seven games might be good for the league, but Boston needs to be a little selfish and make things easy on themselves.