LOS ANGELES — On Friday night in Oakland, music blared and players danced in the Celtics’ locker room after they snapped the Warriors’ 54-game home winning streak in one of the season’s biggest upsets.
Amid the din, though, it did not take the players long to turn their focus to this game against the Lakers. They remembered losing to them at TD Garden in December, and they did not like it, Kobe Bryant farewell tour or not.
On Sunday, as Bryant fired up shot after shot in his last game ever against the Celtics, the Staples Center crowd began to believe in another big night and another surprising result.
In the end, though, as Bryant gave the home crowd one last thrill against a hated rival, the Celtics held on for a 107-100 victory. With the win, Boston clinched a playoff berth for the second consecutive season.
“You want obviously to get a chance, and the only way to get the chance is to make the playoffs,’’ Celtics coach Brad Stevens said
With 2:27 left in the game, Bryant made a difficult fadeaway jumper to pull his team within 99-93, but the Celtics kept the Lakers at a distance. When Marcus Smart hit a 3-pointer with 1:37 left, Boston had a 104-93 lead and was in control.
The Lakers made one final push, using a 7-0 run to pull within 104-100. With the Celtics leading, 105-100, the Lakers streaked upcourt and found Bryant, but his 3-pointer with 20 seconds left was long, and the Celtics held on for the win.
Bryant made 11 of 28 shots and finished with 34 points, his second-highest total of the season. Isaiah Thomas had 26 points and six assists to lead the Celtics, and Jae Crowder added 22 points. Guard Avery Bradley missed the game for personal reasons.
Celtics guard Evan Turner was poked in the eye in the fourth quarter and had to leave the game. Stevens said there was some bleeding within the eye.
“Hopefully not too much trauma,’’ Stevens said.
For the Lakers, hope for this year vanished long ago. So it mostly morphed into a seasonlong goodbye to Bryant. After such a celebratory start, the fans here seem to be realizing that it is now near the end, so the appreciation is now tinged with wistfulness.
The first time Bryant caught the ball Sunday, there was a roar. And then he immediately drained an 18-foot jump shot, and the roar was even louder. Bryant made a 3-pointer on his second shot, and suddenly the longing was replaced by a sense of anticipation, a sense that maybe Bryant had one more memorable night tucked away as he closed out his part in one of basketball’s great rivalries.
“As much as we enjoy watching on TV, I’m glad we never will again,’’ Stevens said. “I can’t imagine what it was like 10 years ago, because he looked like he was 29 out there.’’
With 6:23 left in the second quarter, Bryant spotted up near the right arc and swished a 30-foot 3-pointer. That basket pulled the Lakers within 40-37, but then Thomas, whose own star is shining brighter by the day, took over.
First, Terry Rozier ripped down an offensive rebound and fed Thomas, who converted a 3-point play with 4:36 left. Eleven seconds later, Crowder came up with a steal and found Thomas for a layup. Thomas then scored another basket inside and hit consecutive 3-pointers, the second coming with 2:42 left and giving Boston a 57-40 lead.
Thomas scored 13 points in just 1 minute 54 seconds, a stunning display that even began to seize the stage from Bryant. But with 59 seconds left Bryant ripped the ball from Turner and soared in for a dunk, part of an 8-0 Lakers run that made it 57-48 at the break.
Los Angeles carried its run into the second half. Bryant scored inside as he was fouled as part of the 19-2 burst that tied the score at 59, completely erasing what was once a 17-point Boston advantage.
With 6:31 left, Bryant canned a 3-pointer from the right arc, giving the Lakers a 66-65 lead, their first since the game’s opening minutes. Bryant hit another three at the 4:12 mark that made it 71-69, and soon after that, loud chants of “Boston sucks’’ reverberated through the Staples Center.
With the score tied at 77 early in the fourth period, Crowder sparked a 7-0 run by the Celtics as he hit a 3-pointer and then coasted in for a layup on a fast break.
Bryant re-entered the game with 7:44 left and his team trailing, 86-80, but the Celtics immediately unfurled a 9-2 run that ended with a Turner 3-pointer that put Boston ahead, 93-82.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.
