Kobe who? Pierce is The Man as Finals reach foregone conclusion

"I brought it up to our staff (Wednesday, and they were) probably a 50-50 split," Rivers said of the smaller lineup. "I just did it, honestly, because I thought we had to have floor spacing. When Posey made those shots, I knew that from that point on, we were going to have one-on-one coverage. Whether we made shots from that point was up to us."

Keeping Kobe in check was up to Pierce. At halftime he approached Rivers and asked to replace Ray Allen with the defensive assignment on Bryant. Pierce's reasoning was sound. He still had all six fouls to give. He ... well, here's how Pierce put it:

"I felt like I could be a little more physical on him," Pierce said. "I didn't think he'd be able to post me as easily as he wanted to. I'm a little bit taller than Ray, can get a hand up, challenge him a little bit more. That's all I wanted to do -- just make him work."

Bryant scored 14 points on Pierce in the second half, but it was an inefficient 14 points. He needed 15 shots from the floor, making just six, and his teammates were even worse: 7-for-24 in the second half. With the Lakers unable to score consistently, they were no match for a Boston team scoring at will on the other end behind Pierce, who had 14 points of his own in the second half -- and needed only seven shots to get them.

Pierce didn't just guard Bryant in the physical sense. By asking to defend the best offensive player in basketball, he inspired his team.

"I was like, 'let's do it,'" Allen said. "Take him."

Pierce took Bryant. The rest of the Lakers took a powder. And Boston took control of the NBA Finals.

Irrevocable control.