BOSTON — Ray Allen lost the shooting touch that made history two days earlier.
One of the NBA's most reliable outside scorers took 13 shots from the field on Tuesday night and missed every one of them. Not coincidentally, the Los Angeles Lakers won 91-84 to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals over the Boston Celtics.
The worst playoff shooting performance by any player in at least 18 years was an amazing turnaround from Sunday's 103-94 Boston victory, when Allen made his first seven 3-point shots, finished with a finals-record eight and scored 32 points.
On Tuesday, he was 0 for 8 from beyond the arc.
His last attempt came with 57 seconds to play and Los Angeles leading 84-80. Holding the ball in the left corner behind the 3-point line, he launched a high shot. He watched as it headed toward the basket, but like all his other shots, it clanged off the rim.
The Lakers got the ball and moments later Derek Fisher, victimized often by Allen on Sunday night, sank a layup for an 86-80 lead.
If there was one consolation for Allen (and there probably wasn't) he fell short of setting another record. Two players were 0 for 14 in finals games — Chuck Reiser for Baltimore at Philadelphia in 1948 and Dennis Johnson for Seattle against Washington in 1978.
Allen did hit two free throws.
Before Tuesday, Allen's poorest shooting game in regular or postseason play was 0 for 9 against Memphis on Jan. 4, 2008. And since 1991-92, no player has ever done worse than 0 for 10 in a playoff game. Patrick Ewing did that on May 28, 1994, against Indiana and Charles Barkley matched that on May 13, 1995, against Houston.
Paul Pierce was better than Allen on Tuesday night, but not by a whole lot.
He made only two of his first nine shots and was 4 for 11 before making a meaningless layup for the last basket of the game with 5.1 seconds remaining. On Sunday, Pierce was even worse, scoring 10 points while missing nine of 11 shots.
The cold shooting of Allen and Pierce overshadowed a major reversal by Kevin Garnett from Game 2, a positive one. Garnett scored the first six points of the game, matching his total for all of Sunday night, and finished with 25. He missed only five shots all night.
Allen missed five in the first 10 minutes.